PUBLIC ASYLUMS.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 6

PUBLIC ASYLUMS.

TO THE EDITOB.

Sir—T He trenchant criticisms whicli ha/Ye appeared 1 m some of the recent issues of your paper m regard to Asylum Mismanage'nienit must have given unmixed satisfaction to many of your readers, but more especially to those who have relatives or friends m any of these State institutions. You have held up Porirua Asylum as an example of the erratic administration wihich exists, and have demanded, not only m the nublic interest, but m the interest of those more immediately concerned, an impartial and searching inquiry. Allow me to congratulate you. An investigation .is badly wanted. In view, however, of the apathy which exists among the educated public where the ''interests of mental sufferers is concerned, it behoves' s one to ask how- this much-needed inquiry is to be brought about, how far it is to extend, and to whom is it proposed that the inquiry shall be entrusted ? The experiences of the past have all tended to show that departmental inquiries are shams of the first magnitude ; as irregular as they are profitless. And more 1 , they unmistakably show that the sinister influence of the Department is used not for eliciting the truth, but solely for the purpose of hiding delinquencies and bolstering up Hie management. Times out of number during the last decade public attention has been directed through the press of the colony to the very unsatisfactory and autocratic management of our State Asylums and to the injustices, under which the patients labior m conse'tjjuence of there b&inc; no Board of Administration, no Board of Appeal, yet nothing .has been done. In spite of the evils which are known to exist it may truthfully be said ' that there lias not as yet been any systematic attempt made to correct them. It cannot but be remembered that a session or two ago a number of our representatives bitterly denounced m Parliament the irresponsible system which has been so 10n.2; m vogue -and demanded an alteration, but, as yet, there has hot been any organised attempt on their part made to initiate a reform. As a consequence of united . action, asylum affairs have- Ibeen allowed to , drift from bad to worse, until the- situation has become intolerable. Why this apathy ? Is the Government indifferent ? or are its members afraid lest they should find themselves compromised ? Are our Parliamentary representatives to blame ? Is the educated public careless and heartless a,nd utterly regardless of the needs of the mentally distressed, or what ?• During the' present session of Parliament one of the recently appointed Legislative Councillors was lavish, m his eulogiums. He declared that we ought- to bs proud of out asylum, administration, ■ and he congratulated the colony on the change 0* name from •"•asyiumi" to that of "mental hospital." How little he knew of the subject on. which he so flippantly discoursed could easily be shown were an inquiry hild. What benefit can there "be derived from a change of name if there *be no change m the malodorous administration which has being so long m evidence ? A polecat by any other name . would* stink as much. An ass mas-qiueradinß' m n lion's skin- would still be an ass. despite his disguise. Your criticisms Possess more than ordinary *. interest for mo because I have friends m Porirua Asylum who are injuriously aflectsi by the existing administration. This unfavourably known institution is riot a mental hospital ; it is simply a '''Workhouse.,'' Both its abundant stair and its unfortunate patients are overworked. Even the statutory holidays which outside toilers enjoy are not extended % to the patients. It is a sweating shop of huge proportions. Its food supply is at times of such niggardly proportions and of such wretched quality as to •demand the severe condemnation of all right-minded, people. Far too often is semi-putrid meat and stinking fish served out 'to the patients, yet they have no redress. They must eat them or go without. As a matter of fact the majority of the patients do eat them ami suffer. Is no one responsible ? How long will this condition of thongs continue ?— Yours etc., ■r REFORM.