The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, morning news, and Echo. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1892.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 35, 11 February 1892, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, morning news, and Echo.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1892.

For t&3 catisa ihzt lacis asaistanoe, For the vroa? tiat ncois rcaiitance, For the Muxa la tie distanos, Aad tha eoiS. thai 77a can. do.

The thrill of horror that went through the community on Tuesday last when the details of the Tauranga tragedy were announced is not likely to do modified by the evidence that has been forthcoming at the inquest. The light thrown on the tragic occurrence by the concurrent testimony of all the witnesses shows clearly enough that if ordinary precautions had been undertaken, the lives of the Munro family need not have been sacrificed to a fit of homicidal mania. The jury have re* .} corded a verdict of wilful murder in the case of the three children who have already expired, but the chief force of their finding lies in the rider which, records their opinion that Duncan Munro should not hiive been discharged from the Asylum, and that since he was discharged proper precautions have not been taken by his family, or the series of murders with which he «r : "j charged would not have happened. If the conduct of the unhappy man is fairly represented by the evidence of witnesses, he is more to be pitied than blamed for his share in the tragedy in which he has played so awful a part: Munro is said to be a man in the prime of iife, of an affectionate nature, and devotedly attached to his children. His nature has not been warped nor his constitution destroyed by drinkingi for he is described as a man of temperate habits. The fact brought out in evidence, however, that from his boyhood he has been subject to epileptic fits, is sufficient to account for the primary weakening of his mental powers. As is frequently the case with persons in a similar mental condition, Munro seems to have developed a religious mania. This phase of mad' ness is much more common than is generally supposed, and is not infrequent among persons whose mental powers, already predisposed to mania in some form or other, are subjected to strong religious excitement. In come instances the form of mania is quite harmless, and merely consists in the subject imagining that he personifies some saint or apostle, or adopting a grotesque view of Scriptural teaching. Some time ago a Methodist minister in Tasmania became im- ' | pressed with the idea that he was the prophet Ezekiel, and became so troublesome that he had to be placed for many years in the Asylum. But the case is far worse when the unhappy victim imagines he is deputed by the Almighty to execute some murderous purpose, or to be an instrument of vengeance upon His adversaries.

This homicidal mania seems to have take possession of the unfortunate Munro's mind. He appears to have brooded over distorted visions raised by his own diseased imagination, till he became impressed with the idea that he must offer up an atoning sacrifice; When an idea of this kind gets firm possession of the mind of a maniac, he will cherish it for months, waiting for the moment to carry it into execution; While the unhappy wife was attending to her household duties, and endeavouring to blind herself to the too evident fact that her husband's mind was unhinged, he was waiting for the moment when he could shed his children's blood.

In addition to the homicidal mania by which he was possessed, Munro seems to have almost constantly suffered from insomnia. This, when unduly prolonged, is sufficient to throw the mind of a s.rong man off the balance ; and when we learn from the evidence of his relatives that Munro could get no sleep except under the influence of opiates, the wonder is, considering bis diseased mind, not that he at last made a murderous attack upon his family, but that the sleepless maniac had not effected his purpose long before.

When the unhappy man gave so many evidences ot being of unsound mind, most persons will be inclined to ask why his relatives did not take precautions by placing him where he would be carefully guarded. We think this is one of many instances where the public have just cause of complaint. When a man gets into a condition that he is no longer accountable for his actions, and is just as liable to commit "murder as not, he undoubtedly ought to be placed in the Lunatic Asylum. Munro had already been an inmate of the Auckland Asylum, but his wife, not, apparently, from any change in his condition for the better, but owing to the solicitations of his relatives, procured his release. It is quite evident Munro ought never to have been allowed at large. When his wife, against her own better judgment, had him brought home, he brutally attacked and inflicted bruises upon her. The doctor reported this to his relatives, and warned them of the danger of allowing him to go free • but they seem to have treated the matter with indifference, and one of them replied "he was ail right." Thus, in defiance of warning, the maniac was allowed full swing till the occurrence of one of the most painful domestic tragedies we lr.ve had to place on record.

We think Munro's relatives deserve grave and unqualified censure for their conduct. They seem, for some reason or other, to have been violently opposed from the first to his incarceration in the Asylum. There is amongst many people a most unreasonable feeling on this subject. It is undoubtedly painful to place a relative under ward, but both for the sake of the sufferer and his relatives it is better than that he should roam about as a menace to society. The financial aspect of the case presents a difficulty to some, but to many others th<; real reason is that in some way or other they think a certain disgrace attaches to the fact of having a relative in the Asylum.

The reluctance, to whatever cause we may assign it, to place dangerous persons under has been dearly paid for in some cases. More than one instance of murders committed under religious mania has occurred recently in the neighbouring colonies, under circumstances almost as tragic as the late Munro episode. Persons who are subject to epileptic fits ought never to attend places where there is a great deal of religious excitement going on. We should not lose sight of the fact that persons suffering from religious mania are frequently as dangerous as the subjects of madness developed in other forms. The carelessness shown in this instance will probably result in the loss of five lives that might have been saved but for shameful neglect. The fault does not appear to have lain chiefly with the wife, but with Munro's own relatives, who both culpably neglected the interests of the unhappy roan's family and the duty they owed to society.