H.—7

4

that stage may have happily passed —but must her husband have hanging over him the liability of prosecution should he fail to remember that she is newly recovered and has to be treated with all possible consideration, including the avoidance of emotional strain ? The answer, should the husband wish to keep within the law, is to be found in section 80, subsection (5) : " Any person so absent on leave may at any time during the currency of his period of leave be discharged on the receipt by the person who granted the leave of a medical certificate," &o. There are patients discharged as " unrecovered " who enjoyed full parole in the institution, and need at home no oversight as mentally defective. There are also, remaining in their homes, feebleminded persons not committed because they do not need oversight. The section does not apply to them. If a house and householder be deemed suitable, and if the medical certificates state that itwould be safe and convenient, may not a woman be placed by a Magistrate in her husband's care as a single patient ? It is quite possible, the Magistrate having satisfied himself that the husband would be a person capable of ordering his conduct to his wife's mental well-being, and if the medical certificates, given on that understanding, declare it safe and convenient. The wife's mental disorder is the paramount consideration, and want of control on the part of the husband, a desire to claim marital rights, would pronounce him unfit to have the charge of her as she then was, and any breach of the law should be regarded as criminal. He would not be alone in the house with her as presumed, for there would be also servants and nurses. A hypothetical case was stated of a couple living in such restricted quarters that they were forced to cohabit. The answer, it seems to me, is that such quarters arc not suitable for treating such a case ;. the patient would not be in " proper care." The point was raised that incipient cases (notified under section 122, within forty-eight hours, where kept for gain, or within three months if at home) would equally, with those under reception orders, come under section 127. It is intended that they should, as long as they are treated as mentally defective by oversight on account of the mental condition. The law's care is for the wellbeing of such women, and its consideration exists as long as the need, exists. In the particular event, which led to the prosecution and subsequent legal argument, a man visited his wife at a mental hospital, and asked permission to go out in the garden with her instead of staying indoors on a fine day. As she was neither suicidal nor dangerous, the request was acceded to readily, and the crime was committed. The jury blamed " the hospital authorities for not warning the prisoner." Comment is hardly necessary. I would be surprised if any juryman would not feel a sneaking regard for a husband, so insulted, if he got into trouble for knocking down the " hospital, authority " by whom, when he sought leave to wander with his wife in the garden, he was warned against having sexual relations with her. The section in question, which also has eugenic value, has greatly relieved those entrusted with the medical care of patients in the matter of giving married women liberty to go to their homes for shorter or longer periods. In regard to expenditure and credits, the last report had a table added covering the period from Ist January to 31st March, 1921, and the present statement is for the last financial year. The expenditure is given in detail in Table XVIII and the credits in Table XVIIIa, while in Table XIX the various items arc grouped and stated in terms of per patient per annum. Apart from the increased staff, due to the increased leave, and the all-round increase in salaries, and apart from the progress in which our institutions are participating with similar institutions elsewhere, all making for permanent additional expenditure, we have not yet completed restocking in lines which, during the war and immediately after, we had deliberately allowed to run down. The credits have not fallen as much as I had anticipated. They totalled £115,415, or only £7,523 short of the previous year —£4,355 of this being due to a shrinkage in payments for maintenance, which totalled nearly £92,167. The following is the return of receipts and expenditure for our farms, showing a credit balance of £16,185 ss. sd. on the year's workings : — ' Expenditure. £ «. d. Receipts. £ s. d. (Salaries and wages .. .. .. 9,020 1 4 ■ Live stock and produce— Feed .. .. .. .. 4,840 811 j Sold .. .. .. .. 13,619 3 0 Seeds, fertilizers, &c... .. .. 1,953 8 3 Consumed.. .. .. .. 25,057 7 J Implements, harness, &c. .. .. 1,217 18 0 Stock .. .. .. .. 1,024 10 2 Rents, rates, (fee. .. .. .. 1,903 0 8 Fencing, draining, reading .. . . 540 4 8 Harvesting, &o. .. .. .. 058 18 1 Railages .. .. .. .. 228 5 2 Buildings .. . . . . . . 149 2 7 Sundries .. . . . . .. 949 6 10 Balance .. .. .. .. 10,185 5 5 £39,276 10 1 i £39,270 10 1 Before making a brief note of my visits to the institutions certain general remarks will not be out of place in respect to misconceptions of ordinarily well-informed persons with regard to mental disease, and the necessity for the steady growth of mental hospitals. Not a few regard the subject as repellant, and have not troubled, therefore, to inform themselves, treating it as something mysterious ; and many, quite apart from the really sad aspect of the disturbance of mind showing itself in conduct appreciated or unappreciated by the patient, regard a patient labouring under mental disorder as lost - " witness the necessity to increase accommodation for them, so different from persons suffering from bodily ailments." Such persons—and they are a large number— can be