THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1896. THE BYRON CASE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7600, 20 February 1896, Page 2

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1896. THE BYRON CASE.

A more wretched and depressing exhibition than that in connection with the so-called " enquiry" into the Byron case could hardly be found in the annals of Enmbledom. Its methods constituted a scaudal ; its scope was altogether misconceived. A stranger reading a report of the proceedings would suppose that the Charitable Aid Board had appointed three of themselves to discover whether Mrs Byron's relatives resided in a nice house, were scrupulously clean, and possessed of such a quantity of bed linen that when one lot was being washed another could be spread in virgin whiteness for the comfort of the poor unfortunate now in the hospital. Whether those relatives were clean or the reverse had nothing whatever to do with the case. The enquiry was set on foot because of a certain set of circumstances first exposed in the columns of the Daily Te, EGRArH, and then brought out in the Magistrate Court. The duty of the three members c£ the Board asked to conduct the enquiry wa3 to come to a decision upon those circumstances. Instead of tout the greater portion of the time devoted to the investigation— or what ought to have been an investigation—wag wasted in discussions, sometimes of a violent tone, as to whether before Mrs Byron was sent to the Refuge she slept upon a feather bed or upon straw, and whether the horrible cabin in which she and her relatives had been sent to reside by the Board was kept hi the cleanest and neatest condition possible under the circumstances. The circumstances that had te . c cleared np were as follows ; — Jane Byron, a poor and feeble woman of over seventy years of age, was in tho refuge, having been admitted a second time to that institution on the -22nd of January last. She had before been an inmate, but had been compelled to leave under threats of being sent to a lunatic asylum if she did not leave. She was taken away by har daughter, , a woman almost absolutely destitute, and with her husband living in a vile hut which ths Charitable Aid Board allotted to tliera. T.'eic " cottage," as it is called, is one or ssyenil which were condemned a couple of years ago as unfit for human habitation. That, however, has little or nothing to do with the enquiry, and is only stated that it may be explained how Mrs Byron came to be an inmate of the refuge a second time. She was ill i when compelled to leave, and as might have been expected, grew worse while lying in the wretched hole to which she had to be taken. Her daughter applied to the Board's officials for medical aid, but as this, according to her ideas, was not properly rendered, aha scraped together a few shillings and with the money induced Dr. Caro to visit her . lother. The ultimate result of that visit was that Mrs Byron was again admitted to the Refuge on the 32nd of January. At that time she was suffering from an ulcerated leg. On the Gth of February, as tho direct result of action taken by the Board's officials, she was received at the gaol charged with beiag a dangerous lunatic?. The following certificate accompanied her :— NapU . Sth February. 189(3. I certify that Mm Jasid Byron, sotut 72. is affeoitoc" with imbecility of mind, accompanied with frequent fits of violence, during wh*3b cha becomes dangerous to herself und other 3, aud in in ray opinion n, pfopcr subject for a lucutio aflylum. Sbo was admitted into lbs Nap'or Bofnge >» month ago for tho treatment of un -jb. rated log, now v/oi). £ 35. Mkwzies, i Surgeon OA.B. At the time this poor woman was certified to be a lunatic, and to have been cured of her ulcerated leg, sho was suffering from an open wound on her right leg measuring three and a-half inches long, two inches wide, and hall'-an-inch deep. This was so infested with large maggots that under treatment at the gaol hundreds of them were taken from the wound. The woman was examined at the gaol by Dr Moore, Dr do Lisle, and Dr Bernau, with a view to determine whether she was a dangerous lunatic or not. They all declined to certify that she was a dangerous lunatic, or that she J was a lunatic at all in the ordinary j sense, what mental weakness she j suffered from being duo to old ago. |

Ihe following oertiiicate will speak for itself :—

iier Majesty's Prison, j February 7th, 18%. i "'ara Jane Byron ia iv my opinion suffer- ' ing only from seni'a decay, find not fu ; eabject for a lunatic asylum. I'ho haw fhov/n no symptoms of violence, and ifc_ is j baid to bgo how a feeble old woman with

v.n ulcerated Jci=- unable to walk without E.ss'ktrtnco cun bo dangerous to any one. Wiicr. admitted ono ulcer ia circumference tho fcizo of a crown pieco, aad mora th?.n half en inch deep, way p.warming with meggotp, r.nd tbe other sorss on her leg wore in a very neglected condition. If tho authorities aro usable to keep such simple wounds clean iv the Beingc, I should re-comm.-nd that phe be sent to the hospital •until they ero hosled. That is, if tho medical men deputed to examino her as to her mental condition agree with mc.—l am, £c , T. 0. Moon*:, M.D., Gaol Hurgeon. A knowledge of this shocking business came to us before it was brought before the Court, and we demanded an enquiry. Subsequently, when the medical certificates were read before Mr Sutton, J.P., we again commented upon the facts, and urged the imperative necessity for an investigation. Some correspondence also appeared in our columns on the subject, and so much general indignation was manifested that when the Board met they were forced to institute an enquiry to satisfy public opinion. At the meeting at which this decision was arrived at the following letter from Mr Severne to the Board was read :—

I have the honor to call your attention to tho following facts concerning 1 tho woman Jane Byron, lately ac inmate of the Kefuge. '.' hia person was received in prison on the afternoon of the 6th met.; sho wS3brought direct from tho refuge and charged with being " a dangerous lunatic not under proper care and control." On admission she was led into the prison supported by two men, a cabdriver and a oonatable, as she oould not stand without assistance. Upon examination hor right lo f r was found to be iv a very bad state ; in addition to smaller sores, which wete entirely without dressing, there was one of about the siza of a fiveshilling piece and quite half an inch deep, which was full of large maggots. The stench from this was sickening. I may state that although tho woman's mental condition is a subject for medical enquiry I have not seen or heard anything during her detsntion here, some forty-two hours, to lead me to believe that sho is a lunatic, Sho is, as I have already stated, quite helpj lees, and without doubt requires care aad attention, but she appo;:rs very grateful for ' any kindness shown her [She complains most bitterly of tho harsh and cruel treatment that sho has received at the hands of the matron of the Kefuge, and she evinces a groat dread of being ueus back there ; but this, in the f aco of tho above circumstances, can hardly be taken as aa indication of lunacy. Ia conclusion, I fail to bsg why the medical examinatioa could not have taken place at the Eefugo, and so have averted the intermediate incarceration in j prison of a person obviously not dangerous either to herself or anyone elso.

We have now shown conclusively what it was the committee of enquiry ought to have addressed themselves to. They had no concern whatever with the domestic arrangements of Mrs Byron's daughter, nor the cleanliness of her home, nor with whether Mrs Byron slept on a feather bed or on straw while away from the Refuge— except from the point of view, possibly, that the worse her surroundings the worse it was for the Board to compel her to leave the Kefuge in the first place and go to reside with her daughter. What the committee had to consider were these points : Was or was not Mrs Byron a dangerous lunatic when turned out of the Refuge the second time ? Was the ulcer in her leg, as certified, " now well ?" Or was she simply a poor unfortunate creature, so neglected that her wounds were full of maggots, and she herself suffering mentally from the irritation and pain of her wounds working upon a mind rendered feeble by old age and privations ? Instead of confining the investigation to those lines, the committee allowed all kinds of irrelevant question to be introduced, and., permitted the grossest personalities. The facts in our opinion prove that Messrs McLean, Swan, and Cohen were quite unfitted to conduct the enquiry ordered by the Board, and that in consequence the proceedings partook more of the nature of a ghastly farce than of an official investigation.