MENTAL DEFECTIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 November 1915, Page 3

MENTAL DEFECTIVES.

A SERIOUS NATIONAL PROBLEM. RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS AND THE STATE. WEAK POINT IN THE LAW. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 31. During the next few weeks, the Principal of the Otekaike Home for Mental Defectives (Mr. G. Benstead), will make an extended tour of New Zealand for the purpose of getting into touch with the parents of mentally defective children, and seeing what can be done towards the training of an unhappy section of the Dominion's population. Every mentally defective child ought to receive the training that the State is offering through the Education Department. There has been a shortage of accommodation in the past and the Department ha.s not been able to deal with all the cases brought under its notice. But the extension of the Otekaike Home, which receives hoys, and the establishment of the new institution for girls at Richmond, will enable the authorities to receive a largely increased number of children, and an effort is being made now to ascertain just how many defectives require attention.

Speaking to a reporter on this subject. Mr. Benstead emphasised the importance of the problem that had to be faced in connection with the mentally defective children. The Education Act, he said, made it obligatory for parents, police officers, school teachers and heads of institutions to report cases that came under their notice to the Minister for Education, and the obligation ought to be interpreted as a duty of a very solemn kind. It was a fact, proved by experience in many countries, that nearly all the mentally defective children could be benefited very greatly by proper training if they were taken in hand young enough. They should begin to receive special training as soon as their mental weakness or retarded mental development became known. Tf they were allowed to pass out of the period of child hood without any more attention than the ordinary home or the ordinary school could give them, then the experts could do nothing for them. Their minds had ceased to be capable of material improvement.

The Education Act, added Mr. Benstead, gave the education authorities power to keep defective children in proper institutions, where they could be trained by skilled teachers, until they reached the age of 20 years 6 months. If further detention appeared to be desirable after that date, the young people had to go before a magistrate, who could commit them back to the school, for from one year to four years. Each ease had to he reviewed at the end of the term fixed. There were some sixty boys in the Otekaike School at the end of last year, and of this number 34 ivero under sixteen years of age, 58 were between seventeen and twnty-one years, and nine were over twenty-one years. The inmates were instructed in farm and garden work, basket and mat-making and wood-oarving, and were given training of a kindergarten character. Generally speaking, a decided improvement in the mentality of the young people could be reported.

A GRAVE DEFECT. New Zealand has made provisions for its insane people, and for its mentally defective children. The institutions and the laws under which they are governed are by no means perfect, and very serious complaints are heard from time to time, but it may be said that the Dominion is keeping fairly wei! abreast of the times in these respects. Some of the American States have gone much further than New Zealand lias done, but on the other hand this country can claim to be ahead of Great Britain. But one very grave defect in the system demands attention. No provision at all is made for mental defectives (apart from the insane), who have passed the age at which they can be treated at Cltekaike or Richmond without having come into the hands of the authorities. Just how many of these mental defectives there are in New Zealand there is no record to show. They range from congenital imbeciles of low grade to the class known technically as "morans," consisting of those who are weak-minded without being obviously defective. Some of these unhappy people are classified among the criminals, where they certainly should not belong. Others have found their way into the mental hospitals, where the conditions are highly unsuitable for their cases. And probably the larger proportion of them are living with their parents or relatives. Tt does not seem to occur to many people that the "moran" is a danger to the community. Yet that is actually the case, as can be proved by the official records of every country that has attempted the study of this social problem. The danger is greatest in the case of the girl. The male imbeciles are not competent to direct their own lives, but, at least they are not likely to become fathers and to that extent they do not constitute a serious social peril. But the imbecile girl, ranging from the lowgrade type to the high-grade, is peculiarly liable to become a mother, and hand down to future generations the taint of which she is a victim. Referring to this subject, Mr. Benstead said that some of the American States had provided by statute that preference should always be given to mentally defective girls when admissions to institutions for the treatment and detention of imbeciles were being considered. No boy would be admitted while a place was required for a girl. The reason for this rule was obvious and need not be elaborated. Evidence of a very startling kind could be quoted if proof were required that the weakminded girl ought to have the special attention of the State, in the interests of the race and of herself. Tlis own observations had told him that there were girls of that type in New Zealand, for wham provision of a suitable kind should be made, at least to the extent of ensuring that they were living under suitable conditions.