The Ah Ching Enquiry.

Manawatu Herald, 7 January 1893, Page 2

The Ah Ching Enquiry.

Me Richmond Beethani, R.M., the Commissioner appointed • to enquire into the circumstances surrounding the death of the Chinaman, Ah Ching, at the Mount View Asylum, has submitted a report on the subject to His Excellency the Governor. The Commissioner says he thinks it is impossible to state with certainty when Ah Ching received the injuries which caused his death, in -support of which he quotas the various occasions on which he had to be subjected to violent restraint — in the inakori road, in the cab en route to tha asylum, on the floor of the receiving room at the --asylum ; his extremely violent conduct in the single room, the padded room, and in th? corridor. On any of these occasions Mr Beethani remarks that *h Ching might have received, the injuries from the effects of which he died. He, however, agrees with the Coroner's jury in thinking that the injuries were . probably repejved during his violent conduct* ! when confined inruotn £fp. .10 in .the, Refractory ward of the asylum,' before ■jbe straight jacket , was_^ applied. He also thinks that ! no VnnecesJa/y violence was used by the attendants in placing the strait waistdoaV 6n the patient* and adds that he disbelieves Edwards' statement .that ; the attendant Heise knelt upon Ching. ■<U With regard to condition of room No 10 and the! padded 'room, /Mr Beetham holds them to be absolutely unfit for the purposes for^hich they are intended, both of them having ledges on to which a patient might climb, and from which he might jump of to the floor, a distance of, 7 feet — Ah Ching did 'so, and there can be no question as to the desirability of at once removing these objectionable features, so as ' to ren» der the rooms suitable for the pur. pose for which they weredasigfned;