THE PATIENTS AND PRISONERS AID SOCIETY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13857, 21 March 1907, Page 6

THE PATIENTS AND PRISONERS AID SOCIETY.

Tiib Patients and Prisoners' Aid Society, after what was said at the special meeting of its members held.tin Tuesday, can hardly bo accused of ovincing a lack of appreciation of the responsibilities which it proposes to undertake in tho control of persons adjudged to he habitual drunkards. That those responsibilities are likely to bo very considerable there is no reason to doubt, but, on the other hand, there is 110 reason to believe that the Society is not quite capablo of .sustaining them. As was pointed out by ono of tho speakers, the administration of the Habitual Drunkards Act involves an undertaking from which the experimental element cannot bo eliminated. It remains yet to bo seen what degree of success will attend tho measures which, iu conformity with the Act, are about to be taken to protect the confirmed inebriate from himself. The difficulties which the Patients and Prisoners' Aid Society will have to overcome in its new sphere of work will not be the less because many of them will bo of a nature that will defy exact anticipation, complete experience hardly being available as a, guide for the position which the Habitual Drunkards Act lias established, but they will be only such as must necessarily confront those who take up this Work, whoever they are. The Society has not taken the initiative in this matter, but has really falleu in with the expressed desire of the Government in thus enlarging its sphere of operations, and in so doing has shown an admirable public-spirited- , ness. If it is fitting that some society should take up this work—really a work of charity and reformation in its essentials—it miist be agreed that tho Patient.'i and Prisoners' Aid Society is the organisation into whose sphere this undertaking most appropriately comes, and it is impossible to road the discussion that took place at the recent special meeting without concluding that in coming to its decision in this matter the Society has steadily kept in view a senso of its duty towards the community. -We trust that the evidence of the future will show that the Committee of the Society lias decided wisely in agreeing to undertake tho care of tho habitual drunkards in this portion of the colony, and as for the. very important details, apparently not yet completed, of tho arrangements connected with the undertaking, the personnel of those who take an active part in tho Society's doings is a sufficient guarantee that these will be practical and thorough. It is' too early to prophesy yet, but we think the members of tho Society did well in heartily supporting tho committee's decision, and if tho ultimate result should be disappointing, tho fault is not likely to lie with tho Society, but in the possible fact that the administration rff the Habitual Drunkards Act can .bo attended by only a limited degree of success at the best, owing to tliat little matter at which Mr Phillips .hinted, tho ineradicable weakness of human nature, especially of nature that has been allowed to deteriorate unchecked. We hope that, the enterprise exhibited by the Patients and Prisoners' Aid Society in this mater will earn for it the increased measure of public support, it deserves. The advantages to the Society const;-' quent upon its incorporation as a separate institution arc abundantly clear, and are associated peculiarly with its new undertaking. - Everything points to the fact that the Patients and Prisoners' Aid Society knows what it is about to undertake, and that it will act with a- wise discretion, and will not lnako the mistake of courting failure by an over-ambitious beginning. There is ono aspect of the Society's recent meeting that may well be dwelt upon with admiration. It is the record disclosed of (the Society's many years of useful work, notably associated with which are the records in the same connection of its president, Mr Justice Williams, and its senior agent, Mr J. A. Torrance. That tlio former should have occupied the position of president of the Society for over thirty-eight years and that the latter should have laboured now for forty years carrying out unostentatiously anil patiently on behalf of the Society those ministrations whose talc is never told, are facts that speak for themselves, and the Society sliarc-s in the credit they reflect. Tho hope expressed by tho president that the Patient? and Prisoners' Aid Society may yet long retain Mr Torrance's valued services and experienced assistance will be widely re-echoed.