THE NEW REFUGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9132, 14 August 1888, Page 6

THE NEW REFUGE.

PETITIONS FROM INMATES.

It will be remembered that at a recent meeting the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board had before it a petition from the inmates of the Upper Refuge relative to the site of the new Refuge. It was also stated that there would have been a petition from the Lower Refuge, but that Mr. Walters had refused to allow such petition to be signed. This was referred for explanation to Mr. Walters, and the following reply was received from Dr. Lindsay, the House Surgeon at the Hospital:—"l notice at the last meeting of the Board they had under discussion the action of Mr. Walters in refusing to allow a petition to be signed by the inmates of the Lower Refuge. I wish it to be understood that I take the responsibility in the matter. Mr. Walters was in doubts as to what he should do about it, and when he referred the matter to me I felt that it was not desirable that the thing should be allowed. The Board have never asked for or expressed a wish to ascertain the feelings of the inmates of the Refuges as to where they would like the new Refuge to be built, and as there is some difference of opinion among the members of the Board on the point 1 considered it would only be maintaining the dignity and authority of the Board to prevent the inmates of the Refuges from taking either one side or the other. The friends who visit the Refuges and take an interest in the old people will be always welcome on their errands of kindness ; but I think it is a clear case of over-stepping bounds when it comes to preparing petitions and that sort of thing. It is a sufficiently difficult thing at any time to maintain discipline in the Refuges, and the difficulties are only increased when outside interference of this nature causes a fermentation amongst the inmates, which generally culminates in opposition to the authorities. One of the signatures to the petition from the Upper Refuge was that of a man who was discharged from the prison a week previously, having been committed there for creating a great disturbance and using the most filthy and obscene language while an inmate of the Lower Refuge some months ago. If the Lower Refuge petition had been signed by the inmates as desired, it would have received the signatures of two men committed to the Asylum last week for insanity, and of a man who a few days ago was sent to prison for fourteen days for drunkenness, he stating to the magistrate 011 the bench that he had purposely come out of the Refuge to get drunk on his 76th birthday. I mention these facts only by the way. They had nothing to do with my refusal to allow the petition to be signed. My ground is that any such movement should originate with the Board, or be sanctioned by it.—l remain, etc., P. A. Lindsay, Resident Surgeon." Major Isaacs moved that the report be received, saying he thought that the signing of such a petition by the inmates of the Refuges- was a clear breach of discipline. Mr. Stukues seconded the motion. Mr. M. Niccol thought that a great deal of indiscretion had been shown by Dr. Lindsay in the matter, and it looked as if Dr. Lindsay thought the Board was not able to maintain its own dignity, and Dr. Lindsay had gone beyond what was necessary. It seemed to him that this was a deliberate attempt, on the part of Dr. Lindsay and Mr. Walters, to prevent the inmates from expressing their opinions. Major Isaacs said they were told there were criminals in the Refuge, who went ! there for a short time, and then cleared i out, and these criminals would have signed j the petitions. He also thought they ought I not to sit upon Dr. Lindsay because he had | tried to keep up the Board's dignity, and ' thought it was infra dig. for the Board to ask the inmates of the Refuge for their opinion. Mr. Atkik : We did not ask them.

.Mr. Crowther moved, as an amendment, " That this Board expresses its extreme regret that Dr. Lindsay should have been so indiscreet as to attempt to prevent an expression of the privileges and rights ox the visiting public to the Refuge." Mr. Crowther took the ground that the visitors should be allowed to open their mouths without being liable to have Dr. Lindsay's foot put into them, and that was the main question involved in the matter. The petition was got up by people of a class who were just as well able to judge in the matter as Dr. Lindsay, and their moving in it should have been received in a respectful and gentlemanly manner by Dr. Lindsay, and not in a dictatorial fashion like he had acted. Dr. Lindsay's action seemed to him to be equivalent to telling the Board they were not able to judge, and he would tell them what to do in the matter. The matter was resolved into this : that Dr. Lindsay and Mr. Walters were to decide as to what privileges these people were to have. Different people went to work in a different manner, but he thought that even if they did make an error now and then they deserved thanks for their intentions, and if Dr. Lindsay and Mr. Walters were allowed to do this sort of thing the visitors to the Refuges would simply stop away. The Board must remember that the people who got up the petition were the people who supported the Refuges, ratepayers, while Dr. Lindsay and Mr. Walters were their servants really, or at least received their salaries from them, and it seemed to him to be a very great presumption to attempt to put them down. Mr. Atkin seconded the amendment, although he regretted it should be necessary. He had no desire to "sit upon" the management of either the Hospital or the Refuge, but he desired to point out that the people who had moved in the matter of the petition were people like Dr. Ivenderdine, who found the money as part of the public for such institutions, and Dr. Kenderdine was as well able to judge what was right and proper as was Mr. Walters and Dr. Lindsay. They went to the Upper Refuge, and got respectful and proper treatment, and he failed to see why they should not have received a like respectful treatment at the Lower Refuge. The Board were able to deal with the petitions when they were before them, and decide as to the amount of consideration the petitions deserved, and would doubtless have given them the proper weight and no more, and the matter might have been safely left for the Board to deal with. The action of Dr. Lindsay also did away with a right the Anglo-Saxon dearly prized, the right of petition. As to the man getting drunk, if this were to be counted as rendering a man unfit to sign a petition or do other things, it would disqualify a good many people in Auckland. He thought the Board was quite able to uphold its own dignity and its own rights without any dictation from Dr. Lindsay. Major Isaacs said he thought Dr. Lindsay ought to receive the thanks of the Board for what he had done. Some of the inmates of the Refuges were blackguards and criminals, and he did not think such people ought to have any say as to where the site of the new Refuge should be. Half of the inmates did not know what they signed, and would sign a contra petition to-morrow. He thought it a breach of discipline. Mr. R. Udy thought that the whole thing was a storm in a teapot, in which expression of opinion several other members of the Board agreed. The amendment was then put and lost, and the motion carried by four to three. Mr. Niccol was to have moved, " That the resolution adopted on July 2nd, 1888, pledging the Board to build on the site selected by the committee of experts be rescinded also, " That the report of the Refu«e Committee received by the Board on the 21st May be adopted." Mr. Niccol said as the vacancies were not filled up in the Board he would ask that he be allowed to again postpone his motion, as he did not desire to take any advantage in the matter. This was agreed to. The question of site then dropped.

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