Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1911. MENTAL HOSPITALS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10131, 9 January 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1911. MENTAL HOSPITALS.

{ « There is room for investigation into the system under which the mental hospitals, or asylums, of this Dominion are being conducted. The public are not acquainted with the inner workings of these institutions. It hears, now and then, of a male or female being examined by a coupie of medical men and being committed to a mental hospital by a Magistrate, or Justices of the Peace. It does not know how many scores of people are thrust into these institutions who have no right whatever to be there; Can it be expected that a couple of medical men, with a few moments' observation, are in a position to declare a person sane or insane? Is it rational that harmless individuals, who may be suffering from,a temporary hallucination produced by physical or other remediable causes, should be sentenced to confinement, at the State expense, in an asylum with hopeless and helpless lunatics? How many have been driven to permanent distraction by' being thrust into such institutions? Now and then a case crops, up;., in which it is forced upon the authorities that a person who is committed is absolutely sane. In such cases all sorts of precautions are taken to prevent the scandal reaching the ears of the public. But, where one sane person is liberated, how many are kept in confinement, in exile, in the cruel dungeon of the asylum ? How many are there who should be .receiving medical and curative treatment elsewhere? The country has a .right.to.know,, but it is morally.certain that it never will know, Mean-

while, the taxpayers have a right to insist that the system under which commitments are made, shall he altered, so that the onus shall be entirely removed from Justices of the Peace, and conferred only upon Stipendiary Magistrates or Judges, who should require the sworn testimony of medical men and other witnesses. Hospitals should be provided in which those who display symptoms of permanent derangement should be kept under observation for a period. One such institution is already in existence in Dunedin, but it is totally inadequate for the requirements of the Dominion. The mere fact that it exists, however, is evidence of *ts necessity. One cannot help thinking that the present system is cruel and extravagant, and it is a .marvel that it should be permitted to o'btain in an enlightened Christian country. If the Press of the Dominion were to ventilate the subject, it would soon unearth evidence sufficient to compel reform.