THE AUCKLAND LUNATIC ASYLUM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 7947, 2 December 1886, Page 5

THE AUCKLAND LUNATIC ASYLUM.

A GENERAL STRIKE.

Auckland, November 19. A crisis has arisen in the management of the Whau Lunatic Asylum, owing to a disagreement between Dr Cremonini, the new Medical Superintendent, and the staff. All the latter have resigned, and D.' McGregor, who arrived from Wellington, has accepted the resignations, George Hardy, the principal attendant, who has been 19 years in the Asylum service, and the other attendants, are to leave on the 13th December, unless an understanding ia arrived at. Dr McGregor has gone to Rotorua, but will be back in a few days. The staff includes eight male warders, the matron, and about a dozen female attendants. The dispute is exciting a large amount of attention. Later. .

The following is the narrative as to the embroglio at the Lunatic Asylum between Dr Cremonini and the Staff. Dr Cremouini, who has been resident in Auckland for some time, was appointed as Medical Superintendent after the resignation of Dr Young, and took charge at the beginning of the present month. The attendants immediately began to oomplainof hie alleged overbearing manner, which they said made life a burden to them. So strongly wa< this felt that the clerk of the institution, Mr Thompson, sent a telegram to the Inspector of Asylums, Dr. McGregor, at Wellington, informing him of the state of affairs and asking him to come up at once. Dr. McGregor replied, “Do not be rash, but wait until I come up. Any proper grievances I will redress, 1 expect ' every proper support to be given to Dr Cremonini.—Duuoan McGregor.” Dr Cremonini also, telegraphed to Dr McGregor. Dr McGregor arrived here last Monday, and immediately went to the Asylum, where he found things to bo as had been represented. The principal attendant, George Hardy, who has been in the'.Asylum for 19 years, and who has been spoken of in the highest terms by all the Medical Superintendents and Visiting Justices, gave in his resignation. His action was followed by eight male attendants, and also by Miss Wootton, the matron, and the whole of the female staff, ten or twelve in number. . It has not been ascertained on what Unas the inquiry was conducted, but the charges made by the attendants against the Superintendent appear to bo of a general nature—that he compelled them to salute him whenever they mot him ; that ho threatened, “to grind all their colonial experience out of them” ; and “that he wanted no colonial humbug ’ ; that ho would have everything done by the English system; that he had been generally discourteous and irritating in his manner. Dr Cremonini denied that his conduct had been of the nature described, but alleged that in connection with the principal malcontents, Hardy. Thompson, and Miss Wootton, he had bean obliged to instruct them as to their duties. The result of the inquiry, it would appear, was the exculpation of the doctor. Dr McGregor endeavored to reconcile the differences, and to induce Hardy to withdraw his resignation- These efforts proving of no avail, Dr McGregor accepted his resignation with great regret, though he said he thought that under the circumstances it would be best in the interests of the institution that Hardy should go. In an interview with a reporter Dr Cremonini made the following replies to queries put. The whole matter has been inquired into by Dr McGregor, but I do not oare to state the result in the absence of Dr McGregor. I may state that I first asked for an inquiry. I sought to introduce certain reforms in the management of the institution. One of the principal was this : Some of the male attendants had been allowed possession of keys communicating with the female portion of the asylum. Such a state of thing ia against the principles that should .govern any well-managed institution of this kind, and I cased the keys to be given np. There had been no accusations of misconduct. It was simply a matter of common sense and prudence. It is a fundamental principle ini the management of _aayluma to keep the sexes separate. I insisted that there should be no restraint or confinements placed on patients until I had seen them. I was determined to have general supervision of the arrangements connected with the Asylnm, believing that I owed a duty to the patients and to the patients’ friends. All the female attendants sent in their resignations, and eight on the male side. One of the male and one of the female attendants, however, have since withdrawn their resignation, and I do not apprehend that the interests of the institution will suffer in the slightest degree. I had to set them right as to their duties, I may say that before

Dr McGregor’s arrival I questioned some of the female attendants regarding their dis. content, and they told me that they had nothing against me personally, but they considered my rales too strict. I certainly required that members of the staff should acknowledge my piesenoe as head of the institution by saluting me when I came . into a ward. I did not care a fig about honor, but it is proper and customary that my official position should i be recognised by those under me. la refer- > ence to the escape of patients, the story had i been exaggerated. One female patient, who i was supposed to have escaped, had merely 1 I secreted herself in the dormitory, and t was found the day she was missed, s Another escaped by breaking a fan- ] light, but was recaptured the saoie ( evening at the waterworks. The third 8 patient who escaped was perfectly harmless. 1 and was out on parole. He was recaptured C this morning at Rlverhead. All the letters !' of resignation from female warders were 1 worded in the same manner, showing that a they had been instigated, lam quite pre- c pared to take the full responsibility of my c actions, and am determined that the asylum t shall be carried on on modern and scientific I principles. a The special grievance of the staff against 1 Dr Oremonini is the stoppage of leave which ‘ they formerly had when Dr Young was in t the institution, and which was granted by \ Government. Mr Hardy, the chief warder, 1 in his statement, says: “Dr Oremonini e took charge on the Ist instant, and he t told me that ’he would not have accepted r the position it ho had not felt sure t of my hearty co-operation and assistance, a On behalf of myself and the staff I 1 cordially promised this. A difference, c however, arese between us almost from the r first,; and chiefly in consequence of my t taking the part of the attendants in the im- t positions the doctor sought to place on them, f This was principally in curtailing the v leave that had been hitherto;granted to s them. Ha wanted to make one order j to-day and countermand it to-morrow, a and there was no pleasing him. On \ one occasion he sent me to demand the £ reason why one of the attendants had not v sainted him while the attendant was serving 1 out the patients’ dinner. The attendant t said that he had already saluted the dost r 1 twice that day, and he had not considered s it necessary to pause in the work again to t ealute him. For a whole month before he \ oame, 1 had started the attendants and 1 patients to cleaning and filling up t t e mattraseea so that there should i not be any cause of complaint, but the very : first thing he did was to find fault in a nasty i manner with the mattresses. He said “No t one bat a fool would give a man more than 1 five ■ inches of straw to lie on.” I am dis. ! satisfied with the inquiry, as I do not know t what the charge maae against me was, and I 1 don’t think that I was fairly treated i by Dr McGregor. I have been in the \ Asylum for 19 years, and have worked under i Drs Fisher, Thoruey, Philson, the two i Youngs, Proud and others, and never had i the least unpleasantness. I have gat certi- l lioates from Dr Skoy, and Dr Grabham has t given a good opinion of me in the Inspector’s book. I may say that Dr Oremonini was always finding fault with his predecessors’ i methods, and making out that they know t nothing, and that he knew everything. The i Asylum is very much overcrowded. Wa i had 101 and only accommodation for 107, so 1 that it made the work of the staff very heavy, r I will not go back to the Asylum on any .1 account.” 1 Auckland, November 25. a Dr McGregor, Inspector-General of Hos-. v prtals and Asylums, has gone to the Whau v to-day to make a further investigation into s the difference between Dr Oremonini and s hia staff. He states that he is determined I to sustain the authority of the medical t superintendent and enforce dioipline, what- h ever may he the consequences. He dis- fa approves entirely of any warders holding o keys giving access to the female side of the v asylum, as being liable to abuse. As to t saluting the Medical Superintendent, nothing h more is required than is done in every o asylum in the Colony, Thera is reason to u believe that other members of the staff con- h template withdrawing their resignations, so t that in all likelihood the present embroglio t will be got over without any serious incon- s venieuce. ii Later. h Dr McGregor, Inspector-General of Hos- v pitals and Asylums, went out to-day to the h Asylum, and,'as the result of an investiga- C tion, discharged the storekeeper on the spot, v He telegraphed to Superintendent Thomson r to send a constable to take an account of the I delivery of stores and liquors furnished to j the Asylum, which was done. Six warders t declining to withdraw their resignations I were also discharged. As there are numerous v applications for the vacant positions, there 1 will be no difficulty in getting oyer the embroglio. a Auckland, November 2G. a

The discharged warders at the Asylum have been replaced by fresh men. Matters are now going on quietly and satisfactorily.