MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1924, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

- an asylum scandal. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION LONDON, February 27. A reniarkablo law action is reported. Harnett, a well-to-do farmer, is suing Doctor Bond. Lunacy Commissioner and Dr. Adam, keeper of an asylum, claiming damages for unlawful detention for lime years at the instance of Harnett’s own wife and brother. Against the two latter another ease i- pending.

This ease so far lias lasted 10 days. A number of doctors gave evidence that the plaintiff was easily excited, and was deeply interested in religion, lie 1.'.nl delusions about bis wife, and about persecution He al.-o was desirous of instmeting boys and girls on sex matters and adolescence.

At the end of the evidence, tile At-torney-General, Bir Patrick Hastings, K.C.. who was defendant Dr. Bond, admitted that Harnett was not a lunatic during the latter part of his coniinemen. It was obvious that things that had been entered as delusions were not a 1 wavs delusions.

The Attorney-General added: “Ibis case gave cause for very great anxiety. Justice Lush, in summing up. said that it was a very serious and painful ease. The plaint ill' was admittedly a g, otl business mail. It was most, tragic if a sane man should be taken off by keepers and forced m associate with maniacs for nine year*.

Lord Landburst. who is an Asylum usitor. and who gave his evidence most fairly and carefully, said that in 1020 there was no reason to keep the plaiuti‘f in the asylum and yet the Commissioner on Lunacy a year later bad reported that the plaintiff was suffering from delusions and mania.. If the plaintiff bad not escaped, lie might be in the asylum now; but by a curious law, if a madman hides himself for fourteen days, he is a free Ilian. As re-

gards so-called delusions of persecution, it was not wonderful that the plaintiff thought himself persecuted. and yet the doctors called this an insane delusion.

STKVIC 1)01! F.S TO BICSUMIC. LONDON. Feb. 2(i. The Executive of the Stevedores Fniou have recommended all the members to resume work under the terms of the national agreement, pending the result of the negotiations, the employers having now promised that their particular grievances will lie favourable considered immediately.

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE LONDON, Feb. 27. The will of Frueman -Mills has occasioned great surprise, lie inherited a. million pounds from bis father, a sillk manufacturer. How lie quadrupled his fortune is known only to a few. Tho "Daily Express” says: "He lived like a Spartan, rising at 7 a.m. He was never idle for a moment until lii.s bedtime at 10 o’clock. lie employed no secretary, but attended to voluminous correspondence himself. He hud tho simplest tastes. He banned telephone's. type-writers, motor ears and aeroplanes. He never took a. taxi on tile occasions of his visits to the eitv if lie could find a trainear or a omnibus. 'I lie villagers where be lived regarded him as a kindly hunting squire. They acre aware that he was wealthy, but never suspected that he was one of the wealthiest men in England. He had ridden to hounds for seventy years. A month la-fore he died, at the age of NS, ho rode 12 miles in bitterly cold weather, and then galloped across country a dozen more miles, and rodo 14 miles home. He was seven hours in the saddle. It was bis last achievement, for lie caught a chill and died.” A cheque of £1,200,000 was paid at Somerset House yesterday as state duty. Other sums are to follow.

A TRIPLE WEDDING. ROME, Feb. 26. The recent eclipse of tho moon was the occasion of a triple wedding at Arzzo. The brides were three sisters, and the ceremony was timed to take place exactly during the eclipse, the girls stating that this was done because they did not like the moon, which was supposed to be the protector of rninaniticist.';. They took their affair seriously, and said that the only moon they were interested in was the lionermeoa.

FEMALE EMIGRANTS. LONDON, Feb. 20. Mi ss Gladys Potts, lecturing before the Colonial Institute on the emigration of women within the Empire, said tiiat she had questioned many hundreds of migrants in Australia, mostly domestics, ami with hardly an exception, they admitted that they had found 1 letter chances than in Britain. They received wages that enable#! them to make savings that were incredible to an Englishwoman. She said that 25 per cent of them possessed savings hank accounts running into three figures, and i he remainder possessed from CIO to CIOO. She did not recall a single instance in which a girl desired to return to Britain permanently. Proofessional women were not required specificially, and their remuneration was not superior to that in Britain. Miss Potts referred to the emigration settlement in Westralia. This was on of the most interesting experiments. All the AVestralian authorities agreed tout the success or failure of this experiment depended as largely on the women as on the men. She commended the women suh-eommittees of the New Settlers’ League.

Miss Potts paid a tribute to New Zealand’s women officers who met the women immigrants. Since the return of the British emigration delegation, the Imperial authorities have arranged with Australia House. London, to supply the 'Women's Branch of the Overseas Settlement Committee with a list of the accepted married women, thereby enabling them to interview and inform them of the prospective conditions. This system was working effectively.

General Windham who presided, said that the Migration Delegation had travelled twenty thousand miles in Australasia, exclusive of their odtward and return voyage to Britain.

BAD WEATHER. PARIS, Feb. 2 0. Unusually severe weather is living j experienced in Europe from the PyreuI ne.s to the Alps, and the mountains be--1 hind Nice are covered with snow. | | A SUSPICIOUS CASE. I SYDNEY. Fob. 27. i A post mortem on Hurford’s exhum;ed remains disclosed nothing suspicious, hut his relatives have now asked that the contents of the stomach he analysed.