Committal To Institutions
Sir, —No-one would expect the Minister of Health to comment on the actions of a magistrate in an individual case, but, as ultimate guardian of the provisions of the Mental Health Act, he should have an opinion on this vital principle of magisterial surveillance over committals. The Minister of Justice, too, has some well-defined responsibilities under the same Act. One sure sign of sickness in our society is the reluctance of those with power and authority to insist that those.-serv-ing them shall eschew cynicism and expediency and uphold laws, rules, and principles without flinching. His Excellency the Governor-Gen-eral came up against exasperation when one of his secretaries prodded “one of the ministry people” for the fourth or fifth time. Any reader of these columns knows that in side-stepping, dummying, and speed in passing the ball, government departments show amazing agility from the very first prod.—Yours, etc., VARIAN J. WILSON. August 19, 1966.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660820.2.116.8
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 14
Word Count
155Committal To Institutions Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 14
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.