DEATH OF FLORENCE MARKS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8360, 21 February 1913, Page 6

DEATH OF FLORENCE MARKS

Dr Kinder and the Auckland jury who inquired into the death of Florence Frances Marks deemed it advisable to make certain recommendations. The unfortunate girl recently masqueraded in boys’ clothes, and she visited the Salvation Army Homo in Auckland and confessed to having taken poison. She died after lingering several days in hospital. The evidence at the inquest showed that the girl was weak-minded, and the jury found that death was caused by poisoning self-administered while deceased was of unsound mind. A rider was added calling the attention of the Government to the importance of x establishing an institution where imbecile girls could bo brought under proper control, as suggested, by Dr Kinder, who attended the deceased when her illness began. This recommendation does credit to the hearts that prompted it. There has long been an impression in the minds of many people that some intermediary institution is required for the treatment of persons who are weak-minded up to a certain point—a sort of “half-way house” between liberty and the regular mental asylum. It seems very distressing that sufferers from minds disordered whose condition is not sufficiently definable to justify committal to a mental hospital have really no place provided by the State where they may receive proper treatment. The difficulty, however, is not to he overcome by bmldrng a house. There is an important legal aspect to bo considered. The law knows only the sane and the insane. In the legal view, a man is either in his right mind or he is not, a point that has to be ascertained from medical examination and testimony. Unless physicians are prepared to certify a subject.as insane, the State has no power to deprive him of his liberty. That, we believe, is the obstacle to the “half-way house” idea being carried into operation. Nevertheless, we are of opinion that the whole question calls for very serious consideration on the part of thelresponsible authorities. The case of the unhappy girl Marks shows that some action'is required.