The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3016, 24 February 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1881.

Mahk Hope, in his story of the " Prodigal Daughter," draws a picture of the management of a private lunatic asylum in London. He shows how an outwardly well-conducted establishment is in reality l«*ft in the charge of servants who treat the unfortunate inmates in any manner they like, and that the most horrible cruelties can be perpetrated with the utmost impunity. The object of that portion of the tale is to show that lunatic asylums require to be under the strict inspectiou of Government officers, and that no matter how humane the proprietoi of such an institution may be he is at all times liable to be imposed upon by the statements of those whose position brings them in more immediate contact with the insane. The story is evidently founded on fact, and from the disclosures that bave been made during the enquiry into the conduct of the Lunatic Asylum at Wellington it has its counterpart in New Zealand. The evidence that has been taken before the Commissioners discloses a state of things in a public infititution that, if true, is simply disgraceful. As yet, however, only one side of the story has been heard, but from the fact that witness after witness bears record to cruelty and mismanagement we fear there is only too much foundation for the belief that the present enquiry has come all too late for the comfort of those whose friends or relatives have been consigned in that earthly purgatory known as the Wellington Lunatic Asylum. From the local papers we cull the following evidence, which tells its own tale and needs no comment: — Jesse White, a joiner, deposed he bad been employed on a contract at the asylum last year, from September to December. He had then been working in all parts of the building. He had seen a patient, Mr Merchant, who often helped witness in his work. While Marchant was looking on at witnees one day, Whitelaw came up and asked what he was doing, adding, •' If he is in your way, White, knock him down." Whitelaw seemed quite serious when he said that. Marchant then walked away. Whitekw used to go round all parts of the building, including the female wards. There was practically no matron, and Mr Whitelaw used to go among the females. He could even ccc them using the closets as he passed along the corridor. Some patients bad told witness they were cold, through insufficient clothing, and witness had given one of them an old suit of clothes, at which Mr Whitelaw was angry. Another patient, Mr Coleman, who was only occasionally insane, had complained of being kept

wifVo-:t writing materials, so that he could not w-ite to his friend?. One p>;:c,;% ,';&:;■<•:, «;.jnii;-.;■(, who was no more insane than witness was-, was put I in the '• back" ward, among the woret patients, because he refused to work through Mr Whiteiaw having promised to let him out and not doing so. The patients had to tear the joints of meat with their teeth. Gannon was wearing ing boots that were most dilapidated, and would hardly keep on. He had seen Harvey, the bead .warder, assault one patient most brutally—the patient was scrubbing the verandah, and possibly had spilled some water on Harvey's boots, and the warder hit him so heavily that he had knocked big nose on one side, and sent the blood spurting out. The pitient said, " What did you do tbdt for ?" and presently after tbe witness, had ?a'd, " Why, did you strike the poor fellow iv that way?" when Harvey, with an oath, denied he had done it, saying the patient had struck himself. It was most brutally done. He had seen Mr Whitelaw push or kick a Miss Thompson with his foot, the being at the gate separating the male from tbe femalt Bide. Whitelaw once assaulted him. He had gone up to his work in the morning, and Mr Whitelaw came up and accused witness of knowing something about an article which had appeared in the paper that morning about the asylum. Witness denied all knowledge of it, which Whifelaw, said was untrue, and added, with oath?, he should like to have dim (witness) in the Forty-Mile Bush He afterwards challenged him to fight several times, and said be would lie in wait for him. All this was on account of the article. Witnesses bad seen and heard part of this. Mr Compton, hiR employer, bad seen Whitelaw rush up to witness and shake his fi6t in his face, and say, "Ab ! if it was not for the law !" threatening him. This, too, was on account of the article in the paper. Whitelaw had domineered the workmen and greatly interfered with the work, po that Mr Compton had been obliged to complain to the architect. He had seen Mr R. S. Shaw, a patient, doing all sorts of work. A Swede, named Johnson, was a patient. He was not insane, and bad great difficulty in getting out of tbe asylum. Any man who was useful Mr Whitelaw tried to irritate before the doctors came round, so as to keep him there. He would sometimes ask them if! they knew anything about Heaven and Hell. Mr Whitelaw would go round the female wards, sometimes with Dγ France and sometimes alone. Mr Wbitelaw would look in the cells at female patients vs ho were all exposed, having only straight jackets on. Cross-examined : Mr Whitelaw cbjected to tools being left about but there were so many workmen that witness had great difficulty in seeing that none were left. A patient had escaped by means of a screw-driver be bad possession of. He did not know how that patient had got the tool. Mr Wbitelaw kept the key of the tools. He did not report what he had seen to Dr. Skae, because he belfeved in his own mind that they were six of one and a half a dozen of tbe other. He bad watched Mr Wbitlaw's conduct during nearly all the time he was there. He had felt unfriendly to Mr Wbftelaw from the time Whitelaw told him to knock Marchant down. He had told Whitelaw himself that he was unfriendly to him. Whitelaw was most bitter to him, and after being threatened by him once, witness bad said to him, " Don't you wish T was mad, and here under you?" Whitelaw replied, "Ah! my God ! I do." Henry Anderson deposed he bad a nephew (James Anderson) in the asylum. He bad often visited him. Once Mr Whitelaw told him James was not fit to be seen. Witness insisted on seeing him, and did so. His eyes were both bunged up, and his face a mass of bruises and extravasated blood. He looked like the beaten combatant in a prize fieht of thirty rounds. Witness, said, " How did he get like that ?" Whitelaw said he hid been knocking himself aeainst the wall. Witness, however, could see the injuries had beeen caused by the impact of a human fist, and finding he would not accept the firet explanation, they produced a powerful lunatic of eleven stone, and got him to cay he bad a quarrel with James, and that they had fought. Whitelaw expressed a sort of regret that tbe man's face was in such a state. He should not have brought the matter forward but for Mr Shaw's action. Cross-examined:—The bruises took weeks to disappear, so the nephew must have had an awful hammering. He himself was an expert in the way of inflicting bruises, and was, therefore, sure that his nephew could not inflict the injuries himself. He thought they had a habit of ill-treating bis nenhew. Two other witnesses were afterwards examined, one of whom was employed on contract as a carpenter at tbe asylum. Fie said : Once I saw a patient bandied unnecessarily severely by Wbitelaw and an assistant. They banged him about tbe door. I remarked, " Don't they knock him about?" Whitelaw came to me afterwards and asked if I had seen either of them strike the patient. Then the assistant come up, and said he would knock my teeth down my throat if I said I bad. T replied, "I didn't see anybody strike him." The foregoing evidence havinsr been taken, tbe Commission adjourned till the following Monday.