A GRIM CONTRAST.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1301, 2 December 1911, Page 18

A GRIM CONTRAST.

PREATMENT OF VOTELESS MENTAL DEFECTIVES. WHAT "LIBERAL HUMANIST POLICY" AMOUNTS TO. SToar after year th# "progressive and humane Liberal Government" of New Zealand has boon warned of the dangerously overcrowded elate of the Dominion's mental hospitals. It has boon letting millions of borrowed money ran through itß fingers for all sorts of extravaganocs, but it has dono nothing to ernl this monstrous scandal. Why is this? Look up Ui« Legislature Act, 1508, and you trill find out. "Under Section 38 you will f<ue thai persons of unround mind have no votes. Tho blind have votes, and the blind are carefully cultivated by tho members of our "humanist" Government. At Auckland on October 11 wo had a member of the; Ministry, Sir John Findlay, visiting a blind asylum in the electorate ho is contesting. Ho wauled thoso poor blind folks' votes, and ho was lavish of promises—or words that to tho cars of thV inmates of the home would ooimd like |/w>misc6, while leaving tho astute Sir John i'inilky plenty of room to wrigglo out oi them if he chose. Hero is what he said, according to the Pre.ii Association report:— "Ho stated firet that he had bees xskod by the principal of tha institute to endeavour to secure for the inmates a concession granted by th* English railway companies to poopl* similarly situated at Homo—tho substantial reduction of railway faros. . . . This was, he folt, a very stronff plea, and he Would recommend to the Minister for Railways as strongly and feelingly as ho oould that a substantial concession should be made. . . . . He warned them that he was not making a definite promise, bat h« hoped that whon he retnrnod h» would bo able to confirm it. Speaking of tho Government's attitude towards such institutions, he 6aid that the State had a distinct dnty towards . thoso who had not tho full equipment given to most men and women, and it should bo a parent, intelligent and though not over-indulgent, at least kindly and humanitarian. . . . Tho State no longer intended to be a cold-hearted policeman calmly watching whilo the people starved, but should attempt in some measure to bo an intelligent and boneficcnt parent doing what a wise father would wish to do for his sons and daughters. A: vote of thanks, proposed by one of the inmates, was carried by hearty ap. plause." This yon will Bee is "humanism" in full flower. Now let us turn from tho blind voters to the voteless occupants of our mental hospitals. Shocking Tragediu, At Porirua Mental Hospital, irhei» nearly 900 insane persons are herded together in a building far too small to hold them, two shocking tragedies have oocurred within tho last two months. On October 7 a maniacal patient murdered another in tho absence of the attendant. ' On November 17 a patient oommittod luicido by hanging himself. Year after .year, the Continuous Ministry lias been warned of the grossly-over-crowded state of tho mental hospitals. The jury in tho Porirua murder inquest directed the attention of the Government to tho overcrowded state of the institution, compelling the uso of the day rooms as dormitories. The pitiable victim and the no less pitiable culprit of this sordid tragedy were herded in a room with half-a-dozen others, and who shall say to what extent tho depressing and disturbing surroundings may have impelled tho irresponsible brain of an inBano man to maniacal outbreak? Tho Auckland "Herald," writing on Angust 4 last, directed public attention to tho state of tho Mental Hospital in that city—the scene of another tragedy not long before, The writer said:— "Tho Mental Hospital is at present shockingly overcrowded. In addition to the beds in tho many dormitories and 6inglo rooms, 'shakedowns' (ordinary mattresses, without bedsteads) were seen in every conceivable direction. They wore laid along tho floor in oorridor aflor corridor, they occupied ground space in all sorts of corners, they woro piled up in recessos her* and there, ready to bo plaoed outside doors of rooms when tho inmates of tho latter, should havo retired. The number of these 'shakedowns' was appalling. On the men's sido alone thore aro 513 patients, who have to bo accommodated each night; on tho woinon's sido, 305 afflicted souls havo to bo provided with beds. And of these 818 patients, large numbers are nightly compelled to go to rest upon improvised beds, laid flat upon tho floor, many of them in draughty passages." Tho statements oontainod in this article wero commented upon in Parliament, and 1 Mr. Fowlds, replying for tho Humanist ' Ministry, said: i "He could not help suggesting that if the general election had not been quite so near such a sensational articlo would not have gone through the press of the Dominion." Thia was tho best onswor that could be 1 made'to protests that have been piling , up for years past. J A Blot on Our Good Name. The overcrowding of our mental hospitals is a disgrace and a blot upon the 1 good name of New Zealand-this in spile i of lho good work of thoso directly in charge ,of them. We cannot better the " words of tho Auckland "Herald":—"They are so overcrowded and ' so inadequate j that proper classification is impossible, and tho dcccncics of life aro largely lost t by those unfortunates who by no fault of their own havo been consigned to these [ infernos. It is not possible to use . language too strong to describe the cons dit.ion of tho insano and imbecile where j 1 thoy aro herded and crowded together j like cattle in railway trucks. Conditions 1 become bad enough wliero tho etrorj;■I minded and the conventionally ordered •1 havo to bo herded together, crowded into "( corridors, bedded down in dny rooms. 1 Imagination cannot conceive what this ' means when tho same circumstances aro ] applied to persons whose mental affile- ; tions assume a thousand diverse forms, 'i where the mildly melancholia and the aggressive maniac, the gentle victim of 3 innocent delusion and the no less innocent - victim of shattered self-control, cannot 1)6 effectively classified and cfleclively treat--0 ed. Tho horrors of this slate cannot bo j described in language permissible to the ;1 public press, but tlie.v are known to every a person who has an intimate knowledge of - overcrowded mental Itosnitaß" What do the women electors think of' 0 this Humanist Ministry, which by its s years of callous neglect has bronirht about this distressful state of things? Tho Continuous Ministry cannot plead ignorance, 9 for tho mutter lias been constantly raised t in and out of Parliament. If yon aro thinking of voting for the I- Ward Ministry becauso of its professed I "humanism" remember what thin u vote-catching clap-trap it is. Voto instead d for the candidates who will, replace those who too, 1 such a Ministry in ofiica.