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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9144, 28 August 1888, Page 4

The communication which appears in another column under the heading of " Law and Lunacy," from the pen of Mr. Ewington, together with the report of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board's views on the same subject, will be read with rather a painful interest. There can be no doubt whatever in any reasonable mind that our provision for the treatment of the insane is being cruelly abused : that persons are shut up in our Lunatic Asylums who have no business to be there; and that, what with the obstinacy of the Chaiitable Aid Board, and the misconduct of unfeeling relatives, unhappy human creatures are shut up and detained in the Asylum, who are the victims of harmless delusions, but who are in no way insane as contemplated in the laws on lunacy. In a recent case Mr. Justice Gillies laid it unequivocally down as the law that such are illegally detained, and the whole tenor of lunacy law bears out that he is right. It is greatly to be regretted that the case of some one so detained in violation of his civil rights, is not taken up by one of our lawyers in the cause of humanity and justice : and that an action for substantial damages in the Supreme Court is not instituted in order to put a peremptory stop to practices that are pursued in defiance of private and public remonstrance. It will be observed that the Charitable Aid Board had under their consideration the case of three persons inmates of the Asylum, sent there at the instance of the Board, and certified to by the Deputy Inspector of the Asylum "that they ought not to be in a lunatic asylum, obliged to mix with maniacs, for they are harmless to themselves and others, and can only suffer by remaining there." On this the Board simply resolve that they do not see their way to interfere. From the complex nature of our administrations and the multiplicity of government, this Board that so declares is subject to no discipline from above, and owns no responsibility to the people. But as these three inmates are apparently, on the principle laid down by Mr. Justice Gillies, illegally detained, and as they were sent there at the instance of this defiant and wilful Board, it might be interesting to have a test case tried in the Supreme Court as to whether the members of the Board or others are not legally and personally responsible for false imprisonment. The facility with which a person can be run into the Lunatic Asylum and kept there is a stain on society, and we are surprised that our medical men are not more cautious in allowing themselves to be made participators in transactions that may land them unexpectedly sometime in very unpleasant circumstances. The Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, Dr. MacGregor, is now in the district, and we trust that he will thoroughly investigate the system under which the Lunatic Asylum appears to be abused. No doubt some ratepayers of the district will be pleased so far with any arrangement that will keep down the rates levied for purposes of charitable aid; but the community is not so debased by selfishness as to desire that poor old sufferers from natural decay and dotage should be shut up in the evening of their days with maniacs, merely because that in such case they will be shunted oft on the broad shoulders of the colony, instead of being maintained at onefourth the cost by a Board administering the charitable aid of the district. Few indeed there are among the people of Auckland who would sympathise with such an inhuman kind— of economy but of selfish evasion of duty. But whether or not, Dr. MacGregor has a duty to perform to the colony, as well as to those who are unlawfully and cruelly shunted off and shut up with maniacs, and we trust that that duty will be fearlessly performed regardless of consequences.