REPLY TO CRITICISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20024, 14 August 1928, Page 12

REPLY TO CRITICISM.

MINISTER DEFENDS BILL. EXPLANATION OF PROPOSALS. " GUIDED BY EXPERIENCE." "There seems to be a deliberate .attempt to misrepresent the purposes of the Mental Defectives Amendment Bill by persons who are highly cultured and who ought to know better," said ihe lion. J. A. Young, Minister of Health, in nil address in St. Paul's schoolroom !<ist evening. The Minister defended the provisions of the bill, and stated he was pleased to he able to speak upon it in Auckland, from which city most of the criticism had come. Outlining the scope of existing legislation regarding the carc of those suffering from mental diseases, the Minister said it had been realised for some time that the present law did not cover a wide enough field in order to cope with the great complexity of present-day social life. It was now intended to make direct provision for the socially defective, and upon the question of adequately defining this class the measure had been violently attacked. r " Your learned professors of philosophy and education have not yet been able to suggest a better definition than we have in the bill," Mr. Young said. " The Auckland professors do not seem disposed to come to Wellington to discuss the question, but when we had professors from Christchurch and Wellington before us they were quite unable to find a better definition. It is all right for anyone to make destructive criticism up to a point, but it gets us nowhere. We do not want to put off this problem for another year to enable further research to be made as suggested. The whole question has been awaiting settlement for the past five years or more. We would not do anything if we were not prepared to make mistakes, and if wo do make mistakes I think we are intelligent enough to profit by them. Competency of Doctors. " The advice of the psychologists may be good, and no doubt is good. However, a professor of philosophy stated in Wellington last week that the members of the medical profession knew nothing about psychology. Let me say for the information of those attacking my bill, and making us out to be scared of psychology, that every one of the doctors in the mental hospitals, who are trained in the diseases of tho mind, are also trained in psychology in its application to mental diseases. The doctor, whether man or woman, who is right in touch with the patients every day, studying mental diseases and watching their effect upon social existence, are highly competent to judge, and can express an opinion, notwithstanding what the professors say from their rooms at the university. We are guided by experience of the past and of other countries.

" If you listen to the critics of the bill you will be led to believe the only people we are thinking about are the sexual perverts. Wo are doing nothing of the sort; we are looking upon a wider field than that. I am sure the public will be with its when it knows what the bill stands for. I take the responsibility for the measux-e, because I think it is good." Dealing with the question of juvenile delinquency, the Minister said the critics of the bill objected that they were attributing heredity as the entire cause of delinquency. Here, again, they were wrong. The influence of environment was not lost sight of. The registration of retarded school children had also raised a great deal of comment, but it never had been suggested that because a child was retarded for two years its name should be registered. Proper investigation and careful attention in certain cases was desired, and the Director-General of Education would report upon children who were retarded. It did not follow the children would bo registered. Prevention Rather Than Cure. Because a child was retarded for three or five years it did not prove it was mentally defective. A great deal of retardation was due to bad environment, among other things, and in such cases an effort would be made to remedy the evil. The bill aimed at prevention rather than cure. The assistance of social workers would be enlisted in this respect. a relative or guardian would always bo informed if it were intended to place a child's name on the register, and a fortnight would he given in which to object. It was then provided that a Judge of the Supreme Court should hear the merits of the case in chambers, with no cost to the relatives. _ "There is no attempt in the bill to sterilise persons against their own will," Mr. Young said. "Both patients themselves and parents in the case of minors can object. We have hosts of applications for sterilisation at present, but we have no legal power to do so. The medical profession does to-day carry out certain operations for those who require it, and the operations suggested in the bill are not of a serious nature." Mr. Young explained the various clauses of the bill. He was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.