The Greenaway Case—Inebriate Asylum Wanted.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 603, 24 January 1891, Page 3

The Greenaway Case— lnebriate Asylum Wanted.

Seldom has there been witnessed in Auckland a more lamentable instance of a wasted life than is provided hy the career of Mr Alfred Robert Greenaway, barrister and solicitor, gentleman by Act of Parliament, and member of local society circles — being brother-in-law to Colonel Dawson, . and otherwise well-connected. This young man — for he is still young — has sunk so low in debauchery that his friends are at their wits' end to know what to do with him, and his lawyer had to plead in Court on Thursday last, as against an extraordinary debt claim put in against him, that Greenaway had for eighteen months past been in a state of ' total intoxication ' and unable to transact any business whatever.

How is the depravity of this young native of Auckland to be accounted for ? ' Ah, very easily (says the one- idea teetotaller). His father, the late Christopher Greenaway, was the owner of a number of publichouses, and no doubt the youth would frequently assist in collecting the rents, thus becoming familiarised with the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of these drinking hells. Then came the acquisition of the fatal appetite, his complete enslavement to the drink habit, his downward oourse, until he became the depraved, irresponsible thing he now is. Drink did it ! And money made by drink always carries a curse with it.'

There is a precious though infinitesimal grain of truth in these rabid statements. It is drink that has wrecked Alfred Bobert Greenaway, but what kind of drink ? Not the ' pure brew ' of Brown and Campbell, nor yet the sparkling spirit of Distillers' Whisky, much less the limpid purity of native New Zealand wines from the Symonds-street factory. No ; poor Greenaway (for with his thousands he is poorer than the meanest pauper who retains his self-control) is the victim of vile decoctions of fiery stuff fit only for devils to drink — stuff that dare not be sold in any licensed house, and a bottle of which would send F. G. Ewington, or E. T. Smith, or myself into the jumping jim-janiß, if not into incurable lunacy.

It is easy to raise a senseless howl against all intoxicating drinks; but I might as well startan outcry against water because people get drowned in it occasionally. The true lessons of the Greenaway case are these : — (1) Secure a more efficient system of inspection of beverages ; (2) suppress those sly grog shops where liquid hell-fire is sold at a guinea a bottle ; (3) amend the laws dealing with drunkards ; and (4) institute asylums for the inebriate. Men must drink something, many men choose to drink intoxicants, and some few acquire a depraved taste for said intoxicants. To the latter class Greenaway belongs, and he is the victim of bad laws which permit the selling of adulterated liquors.

At the outset, I hold that it is the especial duty of the Government to ensure the purity of these beverages from which they derive so large a revenue. Nextly, the local authorities should suppress those dens where bad drink is concocted to drug and stupefy the victims. The law enabling relatives of a drunkard to have publicans prohibited from supplying him with liquor simply has the effect of driving the victim of the depraved appetite to those dens where hocussed drink is sold. This law must be extended to reach and punish the brothel-keepers. But with all these precautions, there is nothing to hinder rich men like Greenaway getting beastly drunk in their own homes, so it becomes essential to have Asylums provided where they can be compulsorily confined and curatively treated. To send an imbecile like Greenaway to a lunatic asylum would be as outrageous and illogical as the sending of the common sort of drunkard to gaol. What both require is medical treatment— not herding with criminals or lunatics.

Some of Greenaway's actions— notably a disgusting offence for which he was imprisoned some two years ago— favour the ide.a that his reason is gone, and probably the necessary two doctors could be got to sign a

certificate consigning him to the lunatic asylum ; but against such a monstrous wrong every honest citizen must enter indignant protest. Greanaway is the victim of the culpable neglect of Society ; do not heap further suffering upon him by consigning him to a mad-house. For him should be freedom and release ; for others for his tormentors and despoilers — should be chains and stripes and imprisonment.

Two of these harpies have been named, and to them I respectfully direct the attention of Inspector Broham, They are Julia Wilaon and Mary Bowen — I have no doubt the Inspector knows both them and their infernal vocation well - and I call upon him, in view of the evidence offered at the R.M. Court on Thursday last, to take steps to exterminate those vermin and bring to justice those who helped to decoy Greenaway into their dens. Our laws give full power to to extirpate those plague-spots, and I call upon Mr Broham, as the chief executive officer of Auckland in criminal matters, to do his simple duty, ere he has the ruin of others besides young Greenaway laid at his door. Until this is done, and the wretched victim has a fair chance of reform, let any man at his peril either condemn Greenaway's conduct or talk of consigning him to the company of raving lunatics.