THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1925. MENTAL DEFICIENCY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19472, 6 May 1925, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1925. MENTAL DEFICIENCY.

The recommendations of the committee appointed by the Minister of Health to examine the problem of mental deficiency in relation to its various unfortunate effects were published and commented upon by u.s three months ago. A return to the subject is prompted, however, by the interest attaching to the general contents of the committee’s report as now made available and summarised in our issue of yesterday. Tt is no new problem which the committee has had under consideration, but rather one as old as it is far reaching, spreading tentacles which even a young and isolated country like New Zealand had no chance of escaping. Thirty-five years ago, as the Committee of Inquiry re-

minds us, the late Dr Duncan M'Gregor, then Inspector-general of Mental Hospitals, presented a forcible report which showed that “some very degenerate stocks” imported into this country under the immigration policy of the Seventies and Eighties were threatening to become a serious tax on the country, as well as tending to lower the physical, mental, and moral standard of its people. It does not appear that Dr M'Gregor’s warning led to the adoption of any practical measures to remedy the state of affairs indicated by him. Indeed it is probable that the mischief was already done. Laxness in the admission of immigrants of doubtful antecedents may have been a factor in accentuating the problem of mental deficiency and degeneracy as it confronts the dominion to-day, but that the problem would have emerged in any event may be taken for granted. That does not argue, however, that within the past generation everything that could reasonably be expected has been done to keep down to a minimum the deplorable results so largely traceable to mental deficiency. To-day the problem identified with these results must appear to be the more pressing and calculated to engage public attention because of the changes that have come over the conditions of everyday existence. To quote from the report of the Committee of Inquiry—“ln the last twenty years the younger members of the community have been spending a steadily increasing portion of their time, during the. most impressionable period of life, in what are liable to prove forcing-houses of sexual precocity and criminal tendencies.” That is a strong pronounement, and, if justifiable, a severe indictment of some of the features of the age in which we live. The committee goes on to remark that there is every reason for regarding the habit of “going to the pictures” without adequate restrictions, as contributing seriously to precocious sexuality and also to a weakening of the powers of self-control in other directions. This is a carefully considered statement on the part of members of the committee, but it seems pertinent to raise the point whether they are not just a little too discriminating at the expense of the cinema theatre. In these days there is a general enlargement of the opportunities afforded young people ot seeking amusement and diversion. If they have the ' picture-going ” habit they have also, for example, the danceattending habit. Is the influence in the one case altogether different from that in the other case. If there be inquiry as to what all this has to do with the matters dealt with in the committee’s report the answer is sufficiently supplied in that document. Sexual offenders figure in a most difficult aspect of the problem that confronted the committee, and one respecting which it has made some important recommendations. A phrase that became current coin in the language years ago is “the fertility of the unfit.” “The unrestricted hiultiplication of feeble-minded members of the community,” observes the Committee of Inquiry, “is a most serious menace to the future welfare and happiness of the dominion, and it is of the utmost importance that some means of meeting the peril should be adopted without delay.” Such a statement is no more than a reiteration of a conclusion that has been frequently drawn, but it is well that attention should bo given to the committeels added comment that the position is the more serious because, while the feeble-minded are extraordinarily prolific, there is a growing tendency for the birth-rate to become more restricted among the more intellectual classes. The passages in the committee’s report which record its observations of the results of the multiplication of degenerates convey, inevitably, a painful impression. A state of affairs is outlined which conveys a solemn warning of the danger of race deterioration. Tho committee has carefully pondered its recommendations, and has made the best, within its abilities, of a difficult task. , The recommendations are of value, it need not bo doubted, .as a guide to practical measures to combat tho evils and dangers that are to bo confronted. Their adoption must involve tho State in considerable expenditure. But the citation by the committee of one illustration only of the cost to the State, approximately £16,000, of the children bom of a feeble-minded father and mother, should be sufficient to show that, so far as cost is concerned, the indictment is against a policy which, whether merely penny wise and pound foolish, or based on a wrong point of view, permits burdens of this kind to accumulate upon the shoulders of the general taxpayers.