STERILISATION URGED

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1934, Page 6

STERILISATION URGED

PROPAGATION OF UNFIT GREAT DANGER TO COMMUNITYAPPALLING INCREASE NOTED. GROWING COST IN NEW ZEALAND. By Telegraph—-Press Association. Nelson, Last Night. In the course of an address on th® sterilisation problem to the Nelson Rotary Club to-day, Major Dagger, chairman of the Nelson Hospital Board, said, the cost of the upkeep of general hospitals had become alarming but on the other hand the outlay upon mental institutions had been enormous. The maintenance of general hospitals by means of a levy upon local rating bodies and the Consolidated Fund came before the people, who could readily make a protest against what they might consider extravagant or careless administration, whereas the maintenance .of mental institutions, being a Government department solely, did .not come under the review of public opinion to the same extent. That department appeared to be a law unto itself. - A tragic phase was that expenditure in this direction was increasing by leaps and bounds and would continue to do so unless something was . done. After his years of experience on the hospital, board, he had come to the conclusion that much required to be done to arrest the very rapid deterioration of the -standard of human fitness. The . Department of Agriculture continually advocated the weeding out of weaklings, and rightly so. With regard to human stock was there anything approaching this policy being adopted by the Health Department? The policy was the reverse of this. During the war it was found that an appalling number of human beings was unfit. The fit were slaughtered in millions and the unfit remained at home to multiply and replenish the earth. It was this multiplication of unfit that was the great danger which was not receiving the attention it warranted. INSTANCES CITED. He could quote a mass of appalling figures to convince them as to this great danger, but would give only a few details which had come under his personal notice at the hospital. These were:— Case A: Cost to hospital board, £55. Widow with eight children, six committed to the care of the State. This woman had been an inmate of a mental institution and was discharged. After her discharge ’she bore an illegitimate child. Later she bore twins. She was again an inmate of a mental institution. Prior to her first discharge sterilisation ought to have been performed. Case B: Parents alive but the mother sub-normal; six children. The family had cost the hospital board £Bll, the entire family having been patients in the hospital. Case C: Parents alive with 13 children, all of whom had been patients at one time or other, costing the hospital board £474. Seven of these children were committed to the care of the State. “These three families have cost the hospital board so far £1340 and the cost is by no means ended,” said Major Dagger. “Moreover there is the additional cost of 13 children in the charge of the State. When you realise that hospital boards throughout the Dominion are dealing with many cases of a similar type you will have some idea of what the propagation of the unfit means to the taxpayer. . V “Naturally you may ask me what is my remedy, but the matter is of such vital importance that no satisfactory answer will be available until it has been thoroughly investigated by a competent and authoritative body,” added Major Dagger. “Personally I am convinced a remedy can be found and surely it is not beyond the powers of Parliament, guided by the best medical and legal advice, to frame the necessary procedure. Hitler, with all his faults, has been bold enough to devise legislation for remedying the evil by means of sterilisation.

“It may be argued that there would be great dangers in administering the law in regard to sterilisation, but if such dangers did exist—and I doubt it—these ■ would be infinitesimal compared with the , great dangers which we are allowing to make headway under the present conditions.”