A SAD CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 99, 27 April 1903, Page 2

A SAD CASE.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —-Will you kindly find room for tlie following: The enclosed paragraph (re the considerate treatment of a boy who suffered from fits, and was arrested under the misapprehension that he was drunk) appeared in the "Star" of Monday, and, although jl am the last person to grudge the police tlie credit they deserve, I would esteem it a great favour if you would in your own way give the facts of the case, which are" as follows; My. son has suffered from fits for some years past, and has been under three doctors, viz., Drs. Mackellar, Bakewell and Grant. He is, I may state, a non-drinker, and has always been so. Well, he left his home about 7.30 p.m. on Sunday evening for a walk. He had been at home during the whole of the day. At nine p.m. he was lodged in the police cells, and as he did not turn up his father, dreading the worst, viz., that he had taken a fit and fallen over the wharf, as he said he was going there, went to the policeman in charge of the district. He promised to ring up, but did not do so. What sort of night we passed is not hard to guess. At 8 a.m. on Monday I went to the police station. The official I first saw was very kind and civil, told me it was not the *ault of the police my son being , locked up, as it was a doctor who brought him, and that I must sc\e the sergeant in charge; and to him, and nm other in the room with him, I stai-iui the facts of the case. Well, you would hardly believe it, their way of speaking to me was anything but civil. All doctors are human and liable to err, but if the doctors had only casually examined him —for instance, tried to smell if he had been drinking, that alone would have been sufficient. Then it was Sunday-even-ing. He had taken a fit and fallen down in Princes street, but whether the doctor had, as the police say, brought him tq the station, or caused a policeman to do; so, I don't know. As my son isj quite dazed for a long time after having one of these fits, he could not tell me. These are the facts. I got him out by paying bail before Court time. Ido not wish to meet or speak to any of our police if the two I met are a fair sample of the force as regards civility.—l am, etc.,

HIS MOTHER/