CLUB LIFE AT ROTO ROA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16412, 28 April 1921, Page 7

CLUB LIFE AT ROTO ROA.

HOW THE INEBRIATES FARE “ A SOBER VIEW.” “ If peoplo could come to Roto Roa and see what is going on there they would be absolutely amazed,” said Major C. Walls to a reporter to-day. Major Walla is the Salvation Army officer who has the care of the inebriates at Roto Boa island. He will go north to-night. “ We do not profess to cure.” said Major Walls. “ That depends on a man’s mental capacity, hi.s willingness to leave drink alone, his will power on leaving the island, and half a dozen other things. What we do profess to do is to build him up physically and mentally, and endeavour to put a new ideal of life before him. He gets three good meals a day, and morning and afternoon tea, and if he has any energy about him he can catch his supper from the sea. I have 6een men going around with anything up to twelve dozen shelled oysters in a bottle.” “Don’t oysters induce thirst?” Major Walls was asked. “ Well,” he replied, “the stout is always absent. They can’t catch that. We have a fine billiard table, a splendid piano, acetylene lighting, and very fine smoke rooms for winter evenings. There are vegetable gardens (no, they are not growing parsnips now), piggeriest a fowl run, cows, and so on. Wo are not on the lines of a Government farm, but whatever physical energy will do, plus the spending of a few pounds, we do it.” “ What is the period in which a man can pull himself together?” Major Walls was asked. “ The majority of medical men say twelve months,” he replied. “ Personally, I think that is rather long for a man who goes there for the first time. 1 think the ideal time is from six to eight months. If he stays too long lie gets soured and loses all the initiative he may have A man conies to the institution, and he feels happy ho has got a home and clean sheets and wholesome meals. After he has rehabilitated himself in a measure ho begins to get ill at ease with the place, arid inclined to be a little despondent when he considers he is losing so much money. As soon as he thinks he is fit he wants to be out at work. That period of despondency is always a good, sign because it is the. sign of tho better man in him. From that on he picks up. We don’t take notice of that grousing, because it is manhood asserting itself. When a man has been there about five months he becomes impatient and restless and wishes to again pit his strength and will* power against those of his comrades in liberty; bub even then the doctor must be relied on as to his physical and mental ability to put up a good showing. At the end of six months ho is at liberty to apply to the Minister of Justice to review his case with a view to his release on probation. “ We have mostly the superior types of men,” Major Walls continued. “ Formerly men were recommitted to the institution many times, but these individuals were too costly both to the State and the Salvation Army, as there was no return tor tho honest effort made to reclaim them. They looked on it as a home. The Auckland Court, very wisely, sentences a habitual to a, term for drunkenness, following which he has the more severe discipline of Mt Eden Gaol to contend with for say two years’ reformative treatment. Usually we accept men only on the second occasion, for with all tho advantages of the institution, if there is any possibility of reform, a man should bo enabled to pull himself up at all events within two terms. “ So far as we can judge, there are no down-and-outs in the institution. We have a journalist, a dentist, clerks, solicitors, accountants. As one of the men humoroulsy put it, lie failed to find the bottle-nosed type of individual in tho institution. “ Is the cure lasting? Well a man may go. out and take a week’s debauch immediately, but when lie compares his condition with what lie has just left, many a man make. l , a herculean effort and pulls himself together. It depends absolutely ou the individual ; but as a man gets towards forty-live or fifty his powers of resistance weaken, arid though he may be intensely desirous of quitting it appears to be an impossibility to do so. Viewed as a convalescent farm the institution is a jolly good tiling, and if a man decides to get the best out of it he can do so. Jn the summer months they can bathe in the sea and have physical exercises on the beach. They do five hours’ exorcise a day ; hut the word work is never used. The time passes very quickly, and the ‘ nightmare of Roto Roa ’ becomes a veritable plea-