MINISTER'S INSPECTION VISIT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2622, 15 June 1904, Page 81

MINISTER'S INSPECTION VISIT.

On Friday afternoon the- Hon. A. Pitt •(who has control of the charitable institutions of tihe colony during the- absence frora the colony of the Hon. Mr Hall- Jones) met , the male patients in the dining room of xhe Home, and in a brief speech, in which ho outlined the nature of th© complaints -that had reached him, requested them to etate any grievances they might have. Seventeen paiiemts attended the interview. • One of the inmates said h-3 could speak for tho majority of the patients. In th© first place, they objected to the representations made to them by magistrates concerning tho treatment they were to receive in the institution. They were told they would get shooting, fishing, and yachting to enable them to recover their health.; but when they got to the Eomo they found nothing of the sort. A magistrate told one man that he could not commit for less than .12 months, yet anoth-er magistrate committed a man for six months. Some of the- men again-st -whom an order of oomtnitraeint had been mad© were confined in cells and afterwards taken to the Home in charge of a constable in uniform. Why was this publicity allowed? A man was actually handcuffed by a policeman on his way to the institution. Before entering the institution they were given to understand — and their friends and relations understood — that medir cinal treatment would be given to them; "but as a matter of fact no treatment was given, and the doctor admitted thero was no cure. "Why, therefore, were they incarcerated like prisoners? They were only waiting time and money. When a patient went ' to the Home and found he was to get no treatment, that fact in itseJf was a ihock to tho system. Mr Laurenson had efcafced fa-eta.' There was a large quantity of property lying about wasting, but since Mr Laurenson had spoken there had been a cleanicg-up.. Borne good timber had been burnt along with other material destroyed. A -quantity of barbed wire had been lying •on top of the hill for tho last 12 months. h The attendants were in the habit of taking 'the provisions of the Home to the village. Often the attendants were out till late at night, and on returning bad fish suppera; the tins were to ba seen lying about next morning. Tho attendants were in tho habit of taking the pictures out of the illustrated papers to their rooms before the patients had had time to see the papers. In tho village the attendants told" their friends about the patients and -advertised come of them as much as possible. A billiard table ' was provided for the patients, but as it \ras often used by the attendants the patients could not get it. The septic tank ' was offensive. The smell was often noticeable at the house, though, the tank was some ci3tance away. The overflow from it ran into a creek, from which the e-ows belonging to the institution drank. One of the pati&nts had a room near the latrines, and when the water was cut off this patient and the rest of the inmates got the benefit of it. Somo of the emaller rooms were too small for any person to live in, and had no window. The crockery put on the table was at times in a disgusting condition.' A milk jug was in such a state one day -that " a patient put it outek!e the door. Tho water being often cut off, tharo was great danger if a fire broke out. Two windows were used as fire escapee, and one of these was locked at 9 o'clock every night. The fire buckets were not always full. When the water was cut off, this- \valc-r, filthy as it was, was used by the paHenls for washing themselves in the inomirspr, and it ir-ight bo days before they Tw-re filled again. The condition of the latrines when the water was off was disgraceful. Taking the institution altogether, it was an absurdity. No cures vr&re attempted, and therefore, no cures were effected. In addition, the pkeo was. grossly mismanaged. He would not cay anything about the rules of the Home, although ho might speak about them for half a day. Another patient complained of a down draught from the ventilators, and that tho space allotted to t the patients in the cubicles was insufficient; a third urged that instead of alcohol being stopped abruptly on a man's entrance a " tapering-off " policy should bo adopted; and a fourth, in answer to a statement by the Minister, said that the fish sent to the Home from Karitan© w-ere on tyro occasions tainted, and for that 'reason the patients resolved not to touch fish put on the table in future. The Hon. Mr Pitt, in reply, said he nad been informed that fishing and boating could tse got by any of the men who chos3 to go to Karitane. So far onJy one or two men had taken advantage of the outing. As for the representations allfged to be made by magistrates, ho had to say that somo of them were entirely' wrong. The statements that had been made respecting the attendants would be looked into. Regarding the i waste of " supplies," as alleged by Mr , Laurenson and one of the speakers that day, he had been round the estate and looked into matters for hintsplf. Mr Laurenson «aid that a quantity of brass castings were rusting, and that a bath, a- bedstead, and some other things were lying about. Well, he (the Hon. Mr Pitt) saw some screw bolts — he presumed Mr Laurenson refe-ived to-.these,— and they were not rusting. They were in a barrel and under cover. The bath was about to be taken to Sescliff Asylum. The bedstead was an old one, and quite unfit for use. Complaint had also been made about a nuisance from thf< serAii tank. That morning he siood on th© path within eight yards of the tank and found no nuisance, and then he went nearer, and at last stood right over the tank, and still there was not the slightest smell of any kind. The water that flowed from it was quite clean. A3 for the patient's room near the latrineg, he understood the room was intended for a storeroom, but as this man

made a request that he might occupy it it was given to him. It had been said, too, that fome of the apartments were too small. On that matter ho had obtained a report from Dr Hay, which showed the space allotted to the cubicles. The larger room was 49ft by 18ft lOin, with a height of 10ft, and it was divided into 10 cubiclo«, which gave 923 cubic feet per patient. The «ize of tho smaller room was 22ft 2in by 17ft lOin, with a height of 10ft, and it \vas divided in four cubicles, which gave 988 cubio feet per patient. The ventilation, he noticed, was stopped up in one of these rooms. Why the patients should have stopped it he did not know. He could iot understand why the water should be cut off. He had been over the whole length of the water race that day, and from a calculation mad© it appeared that the quantity supplied to the Homo was about 200,000 gallons daily. He had also been through the different rooms in the building, and the condition of the majority of them was anything but creditable to the occupants, who vrt:re suppoasd to keep them tidy. He was sorry to Fee a spirit of discontent existing among the men. As for the treatment, he had this to say : Work was an essential part of the treatment in an institution of the kind, and, having received reports on the whole question from Dr MacGregor, Dr Truby King, and Dr Hay, ho would bring them* before the Cabinet with a view to action being taken at an early date. It was his own opinion that the patients who were fit for work should be compelled to work. A system of classification might also be devised. Those in the first class — those who worked well — might be given better accommodation than those in the second class, which wouJd comprise tbose who were idle or untidy; while- those who would not work at all could be dealt with in some other way. One of the patients said the cutting off of the water was accounted for by the fact that the race often broke, thus taking away the whole yupply. The Hon. Mr Pitt said he had looked it some of the damaged parts of the race. he way in which they were broken was, to say the least of it, somewhat suspicious. , Whether they were damaged by design, or i through the action of the water he was not prepared to say. Respecting the fish, he had "been informed that the men's objection to them w4s merely that they were caught by the patients of the asylum. "The patieDt previously alluded to as the occupant of the room near the latrines said it was at his own request thai the room was given to him. He found no nuisance of any sort. After a few questions had been put to the Minister, the interview terminated with a cordial vote of thanks to the Hon. Mr Pitt for his couriesy in meeting the men.