To the Editor of the DAILY TIMES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 151, 10 May 1862, Page 5

To the Editor of the DAILY TIMES.

Sir—Your account of Mr. Sp-well's proposed "Luuatiues Bill" is not a very promising one. That some legislation on the subject is absolutely necessary, we all know, and every cue acquainted with the cumbrous enactments of the Imperial Parliament must hope that simpler machinery will be provided here, which will at least prove equally successful in protecting the unfortunate lunatics, and almixit tuoie unfortunate persons who are often wickedly accused of lunacy by interested persons. " The \Viudhani case" is a very recent instauee of the condition of things at home. Doubtless. Mr. Windham is a person of low mental powers and vicious tastes, perhaps a spendthrift, but if all such persons were to be consigned to mad houses, every third house would be one. Yet though Mr. Winduam has escaped the doctors, he has been pretty severely scathed by the lawyere, for we are told the expenses of the commission, including the splendid retainers, refreahers, and Consultation fees to counsel, amounted, to the pretty aum of - about £70,000 ! Now Sir, I for one, am not disposed to look with favor upon machinery so costly as this. Nor am I disposed to aid in providing such a feast for gentlemen learned in law and physic, the more especially as it was only the prelude to an application in .Chancery as to " Who is to pay V which t>y the last mail, as is the" custom of that pleasant but expensive Court, was " ordered to stand over." I have a lively remembrance too of an unfortunate gentlemen in a_ midland county being made the subject of a commission with the present Chief Lord Baron Pollock specially re-, tamed for the defence during 15 days'inquiry, at the termination of which the poor fellow was declared "of sound mind, and capable of managing himself and his affairs," only the mischief of -it was that every farthing of his money, and more too, was swallowed up_ by the courts. In short commissions "de lunatico inquirendo"' are rather too expensive abominations for even our Golden Otago. By all means let us ' protect ' the lunatic or reputed lunatic and his estate. In avoiding the costly Commission we must not, however, with Mr. Sewell, consent to the liberty and property of any unfortunateperson being placed at the mercy of a "couple of jnstices," and " one medical practitioner." Our justices are hardly skilled by previous training to;determine, except in the plainest cases, who is or is not insane, and judging by the marvellously slender grounds on which some of the well-known medical experts at home fouutl their opinions, it would be hardly safe to entrust the liberty of any one to the possibility of one medical practitioner being found to opine his insanity. With all due deference to. the profession, we can hardly be expected to concede such a power to any one of them, the more so as in a ' colony the migratory character of the population isso often shared by the profession, that after the certificate was signed, it would sometimes be impossible to find its author!; though, sheltered by his opinion, the justices might easily be misled and made the tools of designing relatives or other parties. Moreover, few medical men even at home have had any opportunity of studying lunacy, so it is very undesirable to depart from the English law, which m all cases, excepting paupers, requires the certificate, of two duly-regis-tered medical practitioners.

It has, after m-my years pretty intimate acquaintance with the subject at home, always: appeared to me that to protecD the reputed lunatic and his property on the one haud, and provide for the public! safety on the other, it would be best to. require that no person should be confined as a lunatic unless on the certificate of two duly qualified medical men, countersigned by the medical attendant of the insfci- , tution in which lie is to be confined, or a, jnstice_if he is detained in a private house. A commission should be appointed by the Government to whom all such certificates should be, under heavy penalty for neglect, sent within one week by the person taking charge of the lunatic, and the Commissioner should lie obliged to visit them within the week following, countersigning the certificate, or ordering an inquiry, as seemed best to him ; and all persons taking charge of reputed lunatics for more than two weeks without obtaining his signature, should be summarily convicted for misdemeanor. Here the inquiry, where the Commissioner (who, of course, should be a medical man) refuses to countersign the certificate, might be before two Justices and one Resident Magistrate in special session, and without a jury. , I have not provided, as in England, for the signature of_ the certificate by the relative or other person initiating the proceedings ; but it is a wholesome provision, aud should not be dispensed with. Again, only such persons as are registered as duly-qualified medical practitioners should be recognised as such under "the Act. I will not intrude farther upon your space, though omitting all .remark upon the very important regulations necessary for the due care and treatment'of the insane, which must be made the subject of legislative enactment, ■ ""'. > ' "•..',''■• I am, Sir, your obedient servant, . •:.. ■■■«•■' ■■-,-. ■ Hakbbm. •: May 3,1862. '" ; v. "..*■• ; , ; "-: ' . ■-, ■ '-....

To the Editor oT the; Otago, Daily Times. f>

Sir—We shall feel obliged if you will allow us to state that, although the contract for the Telegraph to" Port Chalmers was signed ou the 16th of April (time of completion two months), and we applied for a plan of the route on the 17th, it was not until the 30th we received such plan," and then only for a portion of the route, and omitting altogether any mention of the offices (which the Government had to find), the early possession of which is as necessary as the route, "that we may fit them up simultaneously with the erection of the Telegraph. ' Many of your readers will not require to be told that the invariable practice elsewhere, is to date the commencement of a contract, not from the date it bears, but from the day on which the contractor receives possession of the ground;_ a practice so obviously in accordance with justice, that we do not believe it will be departed from here. We are precccding with the work, and believe we shall have it completed within the strict contract time. We may add, that we have never yet failed to complete any contract within the time, and we have had.them, great and small, in Victoria/ from £100 to £50,000. '■..-,' ' '•■"." 'We are, Sir, '".'■ ' ' : " ';:. ' fours obediently, ; Richard Woollst & Co.; ;

To the Editor of the Daily Times

Mb. Editor—Do you not think it a disgrace to Dunedin tradesmen to remain quiet, and place all their dependence on our Government, when, by showing a little "spirit and coming down "with a little of the "ready," a fine gold field and quartz reefs might be opened ; which would ultimately do them more direct good than it can the Government) A Mr. body says, "for £3000 I will point out a payable field." Now. while we wait for the Government to decide w;e may starve. I say, let us give him a chance to prove it, and if I were not a very humble, individual I would call a public meeting of merchants and tradesmen ; and, say, the large men come down with £10 and small ones £1, we can easily make up that amount, and lodge it in the bank, and as soon as his assertion js proved hand over the money to him, Sfiould he hot be able to prove his claim for the re-ward,-what a fine fire brigade could, ba raised with the useless cash. .

I leave the matter, Mr. Editor, in your hands, as .being more able and, I hope, willing to handle it than myself.

Respectfully yours, : S. Benjamin, Arcade. Dunedin, May 9th, 1862. '