NEW STATUTES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16839, 31 December 1928, Page 9

NEW STATUTES

OPERATE IN NEW YEAR ONLY THREE OUTSTANDING CARE OF THE MENTALLY SICK. The majority of tlio Acts placed on the Statute Book in the third and final session of the twenty-second Parliament of New Zealand, which dosed early in Cttober, come into operation as irora January 1. It was a more or less dreary and unimaginative session, and the legislation, with the exception of three Acts which provoked a fair measure of interest, was not of a tar-reaching character. The bulk of the 1928 Statute Book is made up largely of consolidations and amendments, including the following; Post and Telegraph, Publio Works, Education Reserves, Orchard and Garden Diseases, Magistrate's Courts, Inspection of Machinery, and the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Acts. All of these operate as from NewYear’s Day. i lie Music Teachers Registration Act, introduced by Sir John Luke; the Opticians Act, which makes provision for the regulation and control of the practice of optometry; and Acts relating to the registration of surveyors and the government of the Surveyors’ Institute, also take effect next Tuesday. MENTAL DEFECTIVES ACT. The three outstanding Acts were the Mental Defectives, Cinematograph Films, and the Motor Vehides (Third Party Risks) Insurance Acts. The first-men-tioned was the most provocative item on the legislative programme of the session, and was responsible for one of the most protracted sittings of the House in recent years. It was before the House during the committee stage for about 24 hours without a break. The) Act creates a separate Department of State, known as the Mental Hospitals Department, with a director-general as the chief administrative officer. Persons who suffer from mental deficiency, associated w ith anti-social conduct, and who by reason of that deficiency and conduct require supervision for their own protection or in the public interest, are to be placed under the care of this department. Approved social welfare societies will co-operate with the department in the care of this class and of all those who are mentally defective. As originally drafted, the Act made provision for the compilation of a register, in which the names of retardate children should be entered, but such was the opposition in the country and in the House that this proposal was dropped. Another provision, making for the sterilisation of the mentally unfit, and the prohibition of the marriage of mentally deficient persons, was also relegated to the limbo of abandoned ideas. The Act, as passed, provides that a register is to be kept by a Registration Board, all the mentally unfit being liable for inclusion. Appeals may be madeto the Supreme Court for the removal of any name when the mental state of a person is considered to be such as to render his or her inclusion in the register unwarranted. Registered persons are protected in many ways, and must not be supplied with liquor. What action the United Government will take in regard to the Act lias not yet been revealed, and the Minister in charge of the Mental Hospital Department has declined to make any statement for the present. PEDESTRIAN PROTECTION. Of general interest to motorists is tlio Motor Vehicles (Third Party Risks) Insurance Act, which was enacted with the idea of protecting pedestrians on the highways from loss or damage by motorists. When the measure was under discussion in the House it was shown that there are many motorists without sufficient financial means tu meet a claim for damages, and cases have already occurred in New Zealand where people have been crippled for life by motorists, who escape their obligations in the matter of compensation by filing a petition in bankruptcy. When licenses are renewed next May applicants will be required to nominate an' insurance company with whom they desire to place their third party risks. Before a license is issued the motorist must pay to the registrar the premium for the policy. This premium is most reasonable, and the New Zealand motorist will be covered from liability much more cheaply tlian would have been the case had the Act not been passed. The idea underlying the Cinematograph Films Act is to- encourage the manufacture of films by British companies. As the Act stands at present, its provisions are not obligatory, but the industry has given an undertaking that the spirit of the measure will be observed.