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institutional care if found to be leading an immoral life, or unable to support themselves, or for any other reason which the Eugenic Board may consider sufficient. If the recommendation as to sterilization being authorized under the conditions specified is adopted, the Committee think it Would be advisable to introduce some provision as in the American Acts, making it unlawful to perform operations whose object is the prevention of reproduction in cases not authorized by the Board unless the same shall be a medical necessity. Section 11. —Segregation, It will be neither possible nor desirable to segregate all mental defectives. Feeble-minded children who are receiving adequate care and training in their own homes will, of course, be left there. When they reach the age of adolescence the question of their disposal should be considered by the Board. In many cases the inmates of special schools, after they have received some training, would do well if returned to their homes or boarded out in selected foster-homes under supervision. The real difficulty arises, especially in the case of girls, when the age of adolescence is reached. In the opinion of the Committee it is of the utmost importance that mental defectives should be prevented from reproducing. No person who has been placed on the register should be allowed to marry until the Eugenic Board has given its consent by removing the name from the register. It is altogether wrong to suppose that there is any unkindness in taking the feeble-minded, who are unable to battle for themselves, under the care of the State and preventing them from bringing forth another generation of defectives. The real unkindness consists in allowing such unfortunates to be brought into the world. In school, and still more in the after-struggle for existence, the feeble-minded find themselves the butts of their fellows, and the " inferiority complex " thus developed tends to make them sink lower in the scale both in intellect and morals. " On the other hand, it is the general experience of those who have had many years' practical experience with defectives that the majority are far happier in suitable institutions engaged in congenial occupations, and having the companionship of their mental equals, than when they are exposed to the difficulties of an outside world to which they are incapable of adapting themselves. In many cases, indeed, such freedom amounts to the infliction of positive cruelty." This statement is taken from the memorandum of the Central Association for Mental Welfare of Great Britain, to which reference has already been made, and this Committee can, from their own observation, endorse the views thus expressed. It seems desirable, however, to point out the fallacy of a popular idea that the world could easily stamp out defectives and degenerates by merely adopting a vigorous policy of segregation and sterilization. Even if it were possible by these means to prevent all manifest mental defectives from reproducing, it cannot be expected that this class will be thereby eliminated from the population, since mental defectives may be the offspring of apparently normal stocks, or may be descended from stock in which only minor manifestations of impaired nervous vitality, such as instability, eccentricity, &c., have hitherto been evident, and in a large proportion of cases they are no doubt the progeny of persons belonging to the higher grade of distinctly degenerate stock—persons who have not themselves necessarily shown any marked traits of instability or degeneracy, and to whom therefore sterilization or segregation would be inapplicable. Section 12.—The Question of Expense. It will probably be objected that the plan for cutting off as far as possible further additions to the mental defectives of the Dominion will involve increased expenditure. This is, unfortunately, the case ; but will it not be a much more costly process to allow the present unrestricted multiplication of these defectives to continue in an ever-increasing ratio ? If they are allowed to multiply, their unfortunate offspring will have to be provided for in one way or another—some by means of charitable aid, some in our prisons, some in our mental hospitals. Take the case of the defective couple, case No. 4, page 9, themselves in receipt of charitable aid, who have already produced eleven children, all of whom are being provided for by the State, while, as the couple are still living together and the woman is still of child-bearing age, it is quite possible that the total may yet be increased. This family, it is estimated, will cost the State at least £16,000. Will any one seriously contend that it would not have been sound economy if this couple had been taken in the first instance, placed in separate farm colonies where they would have lived fairly useful lives, and been prevented from casting such an excessive burden on the State ? We might take each of the cases quoted in an earlier part of this report, and many others which we have not quoted, and ask the same question in regard to each. There is no doubt whatever that from the purely financial point of view it is very much to the interest of the community that this problem should be taken boldly in hand at once while the evil is within fairly manageable proportions, instead of allowing it to grow into an intolerable burden. Consider the humanitarian aspect. Surely it is a kindly act to give the protective care of the State to those unfortunate persons who are unable to hold their own in the struggle for existence, and who, if left to their own devices, will fall miserably by the way and in many cases become a menace to society. Lastly, there is the national question to be considered. Surely it is important that our stock should be kept as sound and virile as possible, and that where a process of deterioration has been detected every attempt should be made to stop it as soon as possible and by every means in our power.