The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3023, 4 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1881.

The Wellington Lunatic Asylum enquiry is happily attracting the utmost interest in all parts of the colony. Now, from the evidence that we have from time to time published it will have been seen tbat the outrages complained of were not for the most part of recent date. Turning, then, to Dr. Skae's annual report dated July 6, 1880, we make the following extracts :—"The condition of the Asylum (ie., Wellington) is in many respects much improved .... At my visits to the Asylum I have always found it in thoroughly good order, and felt reason to be. well satisfied with the general management, which is both enterprising and careful. . . . . Neither restraint nor seclusion appear to be used more frequently than is rendered justifiable." In the face of recent disclosures the above report appears somewhat extraordinary. But it would seem that the Wellington Asylum is not the only institution of which doubts are entertained as to its management being satisfactory and careful. The New Zealand Times says, some very remarkable disclosures have come to hand connected with the administration of affairs in the Christchurch Asylum at Sunnyside. These disclosures are contained in letters written by patients and ex-patients of that institution. We do not know what amount of credence to attach to the statements made in those letters, but if a mere tithe

of them are true, then serious cause --xists for some enquiry to be made, on Lue part of the proper authorities, into the assertions which have been made. The same journal says we were greatly ■"truck, in common with may others, when Mr Woodwgrd, one of the Commission, aud also one of the Visiting Justices, asked Dr. Gillon the extraordinary question. " What mode of punishment wa3 inflicted on the patients for not obeying orders given to them ?" Tbe medical expert in the witness-box regarded his questioner with a look of astonishment as he replied, " That only 9ane, and not insane, persons could be supposed deserving of punishment for disobedience of orders, of which probably they did not clearly understand the puroort." The answer was one that might be expected from any intelligent witness, aud especially from one who had had experience in well ordered asylums in England. This theory of " punishing/ unhappy, irresponsible beings like lunatics is surely one of the most monstrous character. In the old brutal days in England, lunatics were simply treated according to what an eminent professional writer has termed " the wild beast theory of insanity." But gifted and humane professional men like Dr. Forbes Winslow and Dr. Conolly—two of the most eminent authorities on the treatment of mental diseases to be found in Great Britain —have altered all this for the better, and taught the world that gentleness, kindness, and mild restraint should characterise the treatment of the insane.