"GOD'S FOOLS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 105, 19 September 1912, Page 4

"GOD'S FOOLS."

** i MENTAL HOSPITALS. INFLUENCE OF THE IMMIGRANT. QUESTION OF ACCOMMODATION. ' By Telegraph—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night, Every person born in New Zealand, reports the Inspector-General of MentaL Hospitals, passes through a period of immunity during which, as one of the general population, he contributes his part in increasing the. ratio of sane to insane. Every shipload of immigrants landed here is mainly composed of adults, whose yonthhood diluted the statistical ratios of some other country. With th»natural growth of our population there is also this enlargement by accretion, and, this being so, it becomes evident that one cannot, upon a fractional increase in the ratio of insanity, build theories of impending degeneracy, nor can one compare our figures with those of other countries. INCREASE OF PATIENTS. 1 At the end of the last financial year the Inspector-General reports that the number of patients under the control of the Department was 375G, an increase of eighty-six for the year. The proportion, of the total insane to the total population per 10,000, inclusive.of Maoris, i» 34.93. CAUSES OF INSANITY. As to the causes of insanity, a table attached to the report shows that thr chief cause were '"'Critical periods," heredity, alcohol, mental stress, congenital mental deficiency and diseases of thenervoua system following in that order. EUGENICS. "No one,' 'adds the Inspecor, "can fail to observe the public interest which is being aroused on this subject, thanks largely to the work of the eugenics education society, and once that interest is focussed and becomes a conviction, a popular ideal will be created which will influence the selection of the parents of the succeeding generation, much as religious and social distinctions do at present." LEGISLATION FOR STERILITY. "I have pointed out to you," he adds, "that the difficulties of the problem of rendering sterile by surgical means persons likely to transmit mental defects to their offspring are very great. If legislation permitted the operation on persons about to be discharged from our institutions, it would pereeptably binder the admission of patients who should be under skilled treatment from the outset of the malady, and would be relatively insignificant in its effect, for the number of those so discharged, who, under ordinary circumstances, would have become parents, would be small, compared with the number of their relatives and the relatives of patients unfit for discharge, many of whom, provided that the disorder were hereditary, would be a« likely to transmit the instability to thei* offspring. -f QUESTION OF ACCOMMODATION, In regard to accommodation, the In-spector-General states that at hist a start has been made at Tokanui, and a very; efficient building has been completed by day labour. By the time that the present site accommodates 300 patients good roads will be constructed to the heaTt of the estate. "AH the land," he adds, "is good and easily worked, and the estate is exceptionally well-watered. At Tokanui the Government possesses a very valuable property. I was . bitterly disappointed," he goes onto say, "by the abandonment at the eleventh hour of the intention to meet the overcrowding at Auckland by bulidiug on the reef site." An agitation which proved successful was got up aginst proceeding with the building on the mental hospital reserve, and he thanks the Minister for placing the quarantine buildings at Motuihi «t the .disposal of the Department, adding that by the time the report is presented alterations in progress should obviate any overcrowding at the Auckland Mental Hospital.