POSTPONEMENT URGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 177, 28 July 1928, Page 18

POSTPONEMENT URGED.

MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL PROPOSALS CRITICISED. • iKEATEU (.'OXfe?IDERATION NEEDED "Jh view ul' tlie extreme importance of the mutters proposed in the Mental Defectives Bill, tliis meeting urges that the bill should not be passed at this session, but that it should be more widely circulated and further time given for much closer consideration of the proposals contained in it." This is the text of a resolution passed last evening at a combined meeting of the Auckland Educational Society, the Auckland branch of the Association of Psychology and Philosophy, the Auckland Teachers' Institute, and the Assistant Teachers' Association. It is to be forwarded to the Government to-day. Speakers exhaustively reviewed the provisions of the I»i 11. and stressed the fact that it demanded greater consideration in view of the rigorous amendments to the social order that it proposed to eil'ect. .Mr. A. G. Liuitt presided. Classification of Children. The first speaker, Professor W. Anderson, traversed the provisions of the bill. Criticism of the bill tending to its delay Lad been deprecated, on the ground that it. now provided the "half-way houst-'' for certain mental cases that had so long been striven for. The speaker oniphasi.-ed that the registration scheme was in 110 sense whatever the "half-way home"' which the public demanded, since all 'lie classes registered were those entered as canes of permanent, mental defect and forbidden to marry. Dealing with the aspect of classification lie said the Educational Society was particularly .concerned with the returns that the Director of Education would lie ret] uired to make relative to the children in the schools. It appeared that the po.-ition arrived at in the hill was the result oi a'tussle between two claimants for treatment of school cases. On the one hand they had the .scientific objective of classifying the children under the system of intelligence tests, represented more or less by the Education Department, and oil the other home cl< ssiiicatioii by insight and intuition, which represented the .standpoint of the psychiatrists. It would appear that the intelligence testing system which ~ had been "kicked out of the front door" was being brought surreptitiously in at the back door again. It was perfectly clear that the propo-als of the bill could only be maintained on the hypothesis thaL the measures relating to eugenics, and the theories relating Vo heredity could be carried into eil'ect. It' doubt c.\i-tcil as to the theories then the provisions ol the bill required revision. "Hastily Drawn Bill."

Tlic opinion thai, the liill had been ha-tily drawn up. and il warranted graver consideration than could be giVen it at the last session of the present .Parliament. \va*advocated by .Mr. Bcasley, president of the Assistant Masters' Association. He said injustices were likely to result from the returns that would have to be furnished in regard to tlie mental condition o£ children. Children might lie classified as retardate, whereas their backwardness might be due to illness, economic conditions, lack of educational facilities, frequent changes of teachers and schools, and inexperienced teacher.-.

Reversal of Position. Professor A. i>. Pitt laid stress 011 the contradictory statements Of Dr. T. G. (■ray, who was largely responsible for the bill. It seemed to him that the bill, and Dr. G ray's interpretations of it. really showed a,reversal to the position relating to mental defectives that existed early in the present century, before Bluet's investigations; a reversal of the position that frankly discussed subnormals and abuormals together in the atmosphere of pathological clinics. Dr. Gray, condcmnitig general intelligence tests, had nothing to fall back upon other than the subjective assumption that * was largely practised by psychiatrists. This procedure guaranteed nothing of certainty in the matter of testing and classifying the mentality of individuals, so that Dr. Gray, in rejecting one evil—the intelligence system—actually chose a worse evil. .Another respect in which the bill seemed to fundamentally revert to the early medical and biological studies was that which assumed that one of the major causes of delinquency was fceble-minded-ness, regarding this as an inherent trait. Scientifically Unsound Bill. This, endeavour to seltle the relationship between delinquency and feeblemindedness stood to-day in a precarious position. It could not be shown that Dr. Cray had any satis factory procedure tor testing and classifying mental defectives, and, thercfoie, a clear cut and drastic bill such as had been presented to Parliament was really scientifically .unsound and unjust. The Kev. Dr. Ranston rt fcrred to the facility with which people would be registered as mentally deficient if the bill were passed into law, and the dillicultv that would be occasioned iti removing the sligmu. It was possible, he said, for a child to be reUfrdate for more than two years, <an d nu t be mentally defective. If a standard of classification could be arrived at it should be given a trial, but at present there was 110 scientific standard. Canon H. K. Archdall criticised the political and moral aspects of the bill. He said there seemed to be a pathetic delving into State machinery. Referring to the relationship between the board and travelling clinic provided in the bill, he said he had a profound mistrust about setting up a number' of Government Departments of this nature. So far as tlie intended interference with marriage and individual freedom was concerned, it was quite possible that more grievous harm would be done than under the existing order of things.