MAORI WOMAN IS PROSECUTED FOR LEAVING HOSPITAL

Grey River Argus, 7 October 1949, Page 7

MAORI WOMAN IS PROSECUTED FOR LEAVING HOSPITAL

Magistrate Suggests Compulsion on T.B. Sufferers F.A. HAMILTON, October 6. That some amendment should be made to th e Act to strengthen the powers of the authorities so that those persons sent to hospital under orders made under the Tuberculosis Act, 1948, could be kept there, was suggested by Mr S. L. Paterson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, at Hamilton, to-day, when the first case .in the Waikato concerning this Act was brought. The defendant was a married Maori woman, Mona Mahu, of Ngaruawahia. She was charged that, being a person detained in the Waikato Hospital, pursuant to an order made under the Tuberculosis Act, 1948, she absconded before the expiration of the period of her committment to the hospital.

Senior-Sergeant R. J. Sutherland said that the .defendant was medically regarded as an active case, and as a menace to other persons. The Act had come into effect only last year. On June 7, an application was made for an order for the removal of the woman to hospital for treatment. She was taken to the hospital on June 17> the order being for three months. She remained in the hospital until August 13, and then she left without authority. Since leaving the hospital the woman had had a baby, and she was living with her husband at Ngaruawahia.

“This is a very difficult case to deal with”, said Mr Paterson. “There is 1 not sufficient provision under the Act to deal with people who do not remain in hospital. There is no power to arrest and to return these patients. There is no power to hold them there. The only penalty is a line of £2O. But it would be ridiculous to tine this woman, who is living in conditions ol abject poverty. Such a tine would have to be written off under the Summary Penalties Act”.

The Magistrate convicted, and dis charged th e defendant.