THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1881. A CRYING EVIL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2224, 13 April 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1881. A CRYING EVIL.

Now that public attention has been directed during the past week or so to the question of insanity, it may perhaps not bo out of place to devote a little time in discussing what seems to us an anomaly —and a most serious one—existing in the laws relating to lunacy. It will, wo think, bo at once admitted that drunkenness is in itself a species of mania or mental disease, and, as other forms of insanity, requires medical attention and nominal restraint as curative treatment. That this is so seems contemplated by the law, but wo cannot for an instant believe that it was the intention of the Legislature that the unfortunate victims of alcoholic mania should be treated as felons, in so far as being committed to the public gaol and having to wear the prison uniform. So far as we can see, such treatment is more than likely to result in far worse consequences than the mere drink mania, because on recovering from the effects, which generally takes place shortly after abstinence is enforced, the feeling of degradation is such that the later state of the man is far worse than the first. Why it should bo so is a mystery to us. Men unfortunately suffering from the effects of drink do not, as a rule, require the repressive discipline of a prison. They require, added to a certain amountof restraint, careful nursing, cheerful surroundings, and a banishment from the mind of any disturbing influence. Is a sojourn with Mr. Philips in Lyttelton Gaol, attired in prison uniform, likely to moot those requirements p Wo think not. On the contrary, such treatment is likely to harden the sufferer and intensify the disease rather than eradicate it. The

public, we feel sure, had no idea that wo are in the habit of taking as it woro a backward stop such as this in the treatment of the insane. It seems like returning to the old system of the lash, strait waistcoats, chains, and darkness, as opposed to the milder and more efficacious modern treatment. The drink mania is but another form of insanity, and supposing that a lunatic were committed to Lyttelton Gaol and forced to wear prison uniform as if ho had committed some crime, would there not arise an uproar on the part of the public ? Yet this is precisely what is done day after day, and wo have no hesitation in saying that if it could bo ascertained it could bo proved that the degradation thus indicted upon these unhappy persons results in their gradual but sure descent in the social scale. There is no attempt made to lift them up, to endeavor to bring them to their senses without degrading them to the level of common felons, and wo do not hesitate to say that the present system is a disgrace to our modern civilisation. Wo have now a medical man in the employment of the Government whoso life has been devoted to the treatment of insanity in all its phases, in which we include the drink mania. 'I here is also an establishment connected with Sunnyside devoted specially to the treatment of inebriate cases. Why, then, is it necessary to send these unfortunates to Lyttelton, there to bo treated in nearly all respects as felons ? Arrangements could easily be made whereby they could be sent to the North House and receive the benefit of the special skill of the resident medical officer. They would thus not only receive the best possible advice, but they would escape the unmerited and unnecessary disgrace of being treated as felons. We trust that, attention being called to this lamentable state of things, the authorities or the Legislature will take stops at an early date to alter what is now a stigma on our vaunted civilisation.

ERRATIC TWINKLING. Oun contemporary the “ Star ” the other evening had one of the peculiar articles which from time to time are sent forth in its columns, if not to instruct, at least to puzzle. During tho recent dramatic season just closed tho “ Star ” has bespattered a certain tragedian with such an amount of fulsome praise as almost induced one to believe that we must have entertained a dramatic angel unawares. The independence of the Fourth Estate was, time after time, trailed through the mire by the “ Star ” to trumpet forth the praises of its protege. That journal was “ authorised” to state so and so by tho groat tragedian, as if it were the utterances of a Cabinet Minister. Tho Board of Education was virulently abused because they could not see the great benefit of elocution lessons as given by the pet of the “ Star,” and generally it posed itself during the season as general utility and trumpet blower in ordinary to the bright particular comet which has just flashed across our dramatic horizon. One could have looked on with pity at such antics as these had our erratic friend stopped there. But it has out Herodod Herod in the article of the other evening. Not only is it unfair to another entertainment which is on the eve of appearing here, hut it is an insult to the people of Christchurch, In effect it says—“ You did not care to come to listen to one we consider the greatest exponent of Shakespeare ever seen here ; then your taste is degraded, and you are only fit to be amused by dogs and monkeys.” It mattered not that the feelings of any students of Shakespeare suffered considerably from the mangling which the text underwent, the dictum of the “Star” is, playgoers did not go to hear Herr Bandmann—ergo they are only fit to have dogs and monkeys exhibited to them. Such a statement we consider an insult to the community. Taken as a whole the playgoers of Christchurch are as liberal and discriminating in their support and appreciation of what is good as any part of New Zealand. Indeed, they were somewhat too discriminating for our friend’s friend. Hence these tears. The fact remains, nevertheless, that notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the “Star” quite outside the dignity of journalism, playgoers did not throng to see the heaven-born exponent of Shakespeare. Whereupon the organ turns round like an angry fishwife, and vituperates against all and sundry, endeavoring by what cannot but be called a somewhat discreditable course, to damage an entertainment which has not yet appeared, but which is under tho management ef a gentleman who has incurred the sovereign displeasure of the great Herr. Certainly this displays far more malice prepense than a mere opinion that a certain gentleman did not play his character faultlessly.