MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 200, 24 August 1928, Page 8

MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

AMENDMENTS SUGGESTED. HAMILTON LEAGUE'S VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. The Hamilton branch of the Howard League, passed the following resolutions:— "This branch approves the main principles of the Mental Defectives' Bill, and urges the importance of translating its principles into law." "We consider that clause 14 (C) should be enlarged to make it mandatory that the inquiry referred to should be held by a board or clinic con.-is ting of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and (preferably) an educationalist, and that their decision should be unanimous." "We consider that provision should be made to enable adults who are mentally defective to enter such homes as may be provided without being brought before a Court and charged with an offence." Clause 14 (C) provides that the Mental Defectives Board shall "hold inquiry from time to time with reference to the mental state' and circumstances of all persons whose names are duly submitted to it for purposes of such inquiry, and to determine in respect of each such person whether or not his name should be placed on the register" (of persons classified as idiots, imbeciles, "feeble-minded," epileptics, or "socially defective").