Mount Benger Mail. "BE JUST AND FEAR NOT." WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1881.

Mt Benger Mail, Volume I, Issue 51, 20 April 1881, Page 4

Mount Benger Mail. "BE JUST AND FEAR NOT." WEDNESDA Y, APRIL 20, 1881.

For several weeks past, the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the management of the Mount View Lunatic Asylum, Wellington, haa been pursuing ( its labors, and by the examination o; witnesses, extrac ing evidence of a verj 1 unsatisfactory and indeed disgraceful state ' i of affairs. The report has' now beer I published with the evidence attached ■ Mr Shaw Ross, R.M., is said to have ; prepared it, and the other commissioner* are understood to have signified then I j eutire concurrence in its statements and I recommendations. The inquiry has ■ created so much interest throughout the | Colony that, having carefully abstained from commenting upon it while it was still sub jvdice, we may now be excused for narrating the leading points in the report, and the conclusion at which the Commissioners have arrived. The commission u dated loth February, and em' powered the parties named in it to inquire into the matters and things therein meni tiohed, connected with add reflecting .npon the management of the Asylum and ffmhe bum me treatment of certain ipatients. The commission originated, it Jnay be 1 remembered, in a complaint by Mr J. H. | Shaw ; and thi commissioners held 24 sittings and examined 70 witnesses on j oath. The short-hand writer's notes ; extend to 1156 closely written pages of foolscap, the witnesses being former | patients or attendants, or persons now conI nected with the Asylum, and embraces evidence of experts as to treatment of lunatics generally, and that of persons , at present on the staff. The commissioners set aside the evidence of bad | treatment given by patients wao at the j time were admittedly insane. Six specific ' charges were made against Whitelaw (the superintendent), and one against his ■ subordinates. The commissioners report that the charge of cruelty towards one patient (M'lntosh) had been established. In that case the patient was dragged from his bed at ten o'clock at night in the depth of winter, stripped, conducted ' across au exposed yard and put, and kept for ten minutes, in a confined shower bath, the superintendent himself handling the tap. Evidence was also led, j establishing Whitehw's overbearing deI meanour and hasty and irascible temperaI ment, unfitting him for the due discharge of his position as superintendent ; and ': the commission find that Whitelaw's constitutional infirmity of temper was j such as entirely to unfit him for the posi- | tion of Superintendent. They also find i that the fiibordinates were only too ready to follow Whitelaw's example and i use unnecessary force in the management : of the unfortunate creatures under their ! care. Whitelaw is found also to have, : sometimes with Dr France and. sometimes I alone, visited the female wards, and to ; have set the complainant, Mr Shaw (a i paying patient) to Bct as a scullion. The i commissioners then proceed to illustrate j the duties and responsibi ities resting ! on the various officials, and comment in j severe terms on the mechanical restraint i imposed upon some of the patients, par- | ticularly one Albert Hall. The question i arises in this case, with whom rests the ! blame ? There are the superintendent, I the resident medical officer,the attendants. j and Dr Skae, " In the multitude of ! counsellors! there is safety," says the wise I man. But it has been aptly remarked ! that it is—safety for the counsellors. It is satisfactory to find as one of the results of the inquiry that the use of the strait jacket has been discontinued, and i the best effect. Dr Skae is censured for omitting to enter a written objection in terms of the statute, to a practice of

1 which he verbally expressed disapproval. "Herein," Pay the commissioners, "we 3 find Inspector Skae clearly omitting to I perform a duty cast upon him by his i appointment, namely, to use his special i knowledge and experience to discover I faults in the condition and treatment of | lunatics at this and other Asylums in the ; Colony, and upon discovery to put in ! motion such machinery as was available Ito have the matter rectified. One line from him to the Colonial Secretary in August last might have saved Hall from : seven months of what was in our opinion totally unjustifiable tortures," The : mixing up of the sexes in a shed attached | to the female wards is rrade matter of q ! grave disapproval, and the commissioners U • then proceed to deal with Whitelaw the superintendent, and say they are unable to understand the grounds on which Dr Skae recommended him for the appoint--1 ment, seeing that Dr Skae lays special j stress upon tha appointment of ex- " j p-u-ienced officers only. The medical i officer (Dr France) comes in fira share n ! of rebuke, inasmuch as he confined his i duties to treatment of physical symptoms, ; ignoring the mental condition of the r ! patients. "In fact the Asylum has been and is a safe-keeping place for the insane, ♦ ; and that is all." The late matron (Mis* - : Brigdon) is commended for the satisfactory way in which her duties were dip:- - charged. Whitelaw is rebuked for making some interlineationsin the Medical Journal - of 1878, and the fact is noticed that no -" Patients' Book" was kept as required e by statute, and that Dr Skae had not c ; performed his duties re the " Inspector's g Book." Various improvements in the •f structure of the buildings and manage* y ment of the patients are recommended, e The remarkable difference in the treatn , ment of patients in the front (paying I. | patients) and those in the rear (none ; paying) is severely commented on. In a j regard to the latter, "a hasty word or r i act," it is said, " mi«ht call forth the d j fiat of the superintendent, and a lunatic; ,s i was punished for his lunacy." It is not e ; to be wondered at that;, pending; the ind! quiry, Whitelaw was suspended from s ; office. It would bo a public misfortune diif he should be re-instated. A man who e | has acted in the way in which he is proved e to have acted is unfit to be entrusted - I with the absolute power necessarily vested :• | in such an officer—whose disposition e I ought to have for its leading character. » i istics, patience, gentleness, and lovingly \ kindness. We no not deem it necessary i j to advert specially for the present to the !. ' recommendations of the commissioners. e ' ThoSie are all directed to the amelioration . lof the condition of the unfortunate i I patients, and will commend themselves to i ' all right-thinking and merciful peoplo. It s j is astonishing to think how rapidly abuses f may spring no in a new country, and r ' satisfactory to know that the heart of th» - people is sound on such subjects, and j that wherever abuses are proved to exist t there will be found a general desire to i'• bring those abuses to a close. In this . ! aspect, the cruelties and irregularities [ practised at Mount View will, we sin- > cerely hope, result in the whole subject of « the treatment of the insane being put • upon a permanently satisfactory footing, i Humanity and kindness in the treatment ; of the insane are now the recognised, i rule in all well-regulated asylums.