The Hawera Star THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1928. MENTAL DEFECTIVES’ BILL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 September 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1928. MENTAL DEFECTIVES’ BILL.

Delivurad every evening by t 1 o'clock In tiswera. Manaio. Normanby, Okaiaiva, Eltham. Mangatoki. Kaponga, Alton, tnrlevville Patea, Waverlev, Mo_ola, Wbakamara. Ohangai, Meremere. Fraae* Road, and Ararata.

The Government’s Mental Defectives’ Amendment Bill has passed its third reading -only after being so trimmed and culled that it no longer represents anything like so bold an attempt to, introduce advanced reforms as it did in its original form. Nevertheless, the new legislation is not- devoid of value, although its main interest has been reduced to a change in the procedure to be adopted in obtaining the committal j of a person to a mental hospital and in the control of such institutions. Though the Opposition in Parliament chose to express a dislike of the proposed alteration, in the method of committal, there is nothing to fear and much to commend' an. the amended regulations, which obviate the necessity for the relatives of an afflicted person appearing with the patient before a magistrate, and allow a greater measuro of privacy to 'all concerned while providing safeguards against the abuse of the law. In the course of the stonewall put up by the Opposition, the Government was accused of adopting “forcing” methods in order to get the Bill through, but the fact that the Minister agreed to the withdrawal of the three most contentious clauses affords ample proof that the Government is not desirous of employing its laTgo majority in the House for the introduction of advanced social legislation if public opinion is not ready to accept it. The, withdrawal of the clauses providing ■means of prohibiting the marriage of persons registered under the Act as mentally defective, and the registration of backward school children, and of the proposal to sanction the sterilisation of defectives, may be commended without in any way condemning the merit of those proposals. It is true that in these particulars the Bill sought to take the Dominion much farther along the road to reform than most other countries in the world have cared to venture, but 'they cannot be ruled out of consideration merely on the grounds of their originality. Nor were those proposals•put forward by the Government hastily; they were, rather, the result of many years of study of conditions by exports and of consideration by Cabinet. At the same time the Government has done well to agree to await the education of public opinion on these points, so long as it does not wait too long, nor allow the public to forget in. the meantime the necessity for making itself familiar with the arguments in favour and against reform on the lines suggested. We doubt very much whether the suggestion to bring backward school children within the scope of the Act would have obtained the support of the public had it been pressed. For our part, we; do not like ithe proposal and consider; that it could very well be dropped from j any future attempts to, amend the prin-

cipal Act. If a backward child is ©till sufficiently intelligent to warrant a place in the school system, tjiat system should 'be able to beep a record of the child’s progress and do what is best in the pupil’s interests-. It would be quite reasonable, of course, to advocate the inclusion within the scope of the Act of children who fall below the mental standard required to gain them admission to the schools. Despite all that has been said by the experts in regard to the danger, or lack of danger, of mental ills being passed on to future generations, there is, even in this young country, plenty of pitiful evidence to support the case made out by those who favour drastic means of preventing the procreation of mental defectives. A little delay in the passing of legislation sanctioning sterilisa tion will be of value if it is used to bring to those who make use of the terms “liberty” and “liumanitarinnism” a proper sense of values.