THE WELLINGTON LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue 9345, 25 February 1881, Page 2

THE WELLINGTON LUNATIC ASYLUM.

♦ The investigation was resumed on Monday afternoon. The following is the Evening Post's report of the proceedings :— Henry Schultze, who had formerly been a patient in the institution j said - One morning — this was during my last stay— l came down, to breakfast, ! when Cook, one of the attendants, said, " Here's your porridge." I replied, "Thank you," and was about to take the porridge, when it was withdrawn, and* I was set upon by three attendants —Cook, Little, and Harvey. They kicked me on the head and body, one after the other, while I lay on the ground. Traces of the bruises still remain. On another occasion, a patient came up to me, and said, " Schultze, don't be throwing your cock-spaiTows at me." I took no notice of him at first, but as he began to fight me I defended myself, whereupon- Carrol, or Farrell, an attendant, interfered, held me down, and afterwards dragged me along the floor. I complained of the occurrence to Whitelaw, Dr France, and Dr Skae. While I was in the Asylum the second time, I went up one day to Duggan, an attendant, to assist him in putting on his braces. He knocked me, down, and,. together. with two other attendants, kicked me about. After that I was dragged to a dark cell, stripped of all my clothes except my shirt, ajid. left. there in agony till next morning. I had the greatest difficulty in moving. The pain I .endured was so great that I did not know what to do with myself. I passed blood. Once I saw a patient named Davies abused. The attendants struck him with, their fists, and- one 1 of them— Riley — threw him into a bath with such force as to break his nose. Cross-examined by Mr Edwards— Have never been in trouble for assaulting people outside the Asylum. lam not subject' to delusions. You are trying to excite me. I was" one of the quietest in the Asylum, and never was the first to assault or offend anyone. Do not" reinembef "returning "to the Asylum of my, own accord on one occasion, saying I had come back because I had been made comfortable there. They brought on my " trouble " in the head by ill-treating me at the Asylum. I William Mclntosh (a voluntary witness), shoemaker, said — At one time I was a patient at the" Lunatic Asylum. That is about three years ago. It was in Whitelaw's time. Ever since I have been liberated I have felt perfectly well as regards my intellectual faculties, though, thanks to Whitelaw, not as regards my physical abilities. „,1 first entered the' Asylum about May, 1878. Just before that I had been working at a mill in Picton. A short distance from the jnilLwas a publichause,_to .which I paid more frequent visits than were good for ;rne. Shortly after entering the Asylum I ran away. I was brought back. The officers stripped me nude, andiput me in the back ward, where all the 'noisy and turbulent patients are kept. The food we had was very indifferent. It consisted of something supposed to be tea, and what was termed " bread and scrape." I was kept in a cell by myself, but privileged to walk up and down a damp, brick courtyard for a short time each day. Then I escaped again. I was caught again. A warder named Eoberts — a cruel and vindictive man— stripped me of my clothes, and put me in a strait-jacket. I wp,s put to bed about seven o'clock, and ; fell asleep from fatigue. About halftpast ten I was disturbed. Whitelaw,! accompanied by Cook and "Carroll (thelatter now in the police force), came in with lanterns. . The former said, " Where is the b ?" Cook and Carroll jthen stripped me as naked as the day -I was born, and thrust me into a shower-bath — a little . box, scarcely sufficient to turn round in. Whitelaw, smelling strongly of brandy, then turned the tap on, remarking, " D you, you b — r-> I'll teach you to run away from the Asylum.'-'- Ten minutes afterwards the tap was turned off, and Whitelaw laughed at me from the outside. He afterwards turned the water on again. The : ordeal was very painful. He gloried in it. One would not believe the bruelty he is capable of. He is Satan in the form of flesh. After the lapse) of twenty minutes or so, I was taken out of the bath and led naked across a yard into a cell, where I was given a dilapidated mattrass, a couple of so-called blankets, and what, had once been a counterpane. It was many houi'g before I got heat in my body. I was kept in the cell fourteen days and nights, with only a strait-jacket, a pair of old socks, and a pair of trousers on. It was in the winter time. The bed was taken out of the cell every morning, and there; was nothing to sit down on but the floor. After 1 got out of this cell, I saw the warder, Eoberts, in the diningroom, and I expressed my surprise that he aided Whitelaw in his inhuman and unchristianlike conduct. Roberts thereupon took hold of me and threw me on the table, stunning me for a minute or two, and inflicting a wound near the eye, the trace of which exists at the present moment. I asked Dr France for a bandage for it, but he did not give me one. I was next placed in the " back," and assaulted by the warders. On com- | plaining to Whitelaw he said it would have served me d well right if they had knocked my head in. A third time I managed to effect an escape, and this time I got as far as the East Coast. There; I qbtained employment on Mr Sutherland's station as* cook for the shearers. I remained there five weeks, and the money I earned I brought to Wellington and gave to my wife. Here I interviewed the Rev. J. Patterson, the minister of the church 'I belonged to, respecting my release, and he advised me to get a certificate of sanity from a physician. Shortly afterwards, while passing the police station at Greytown, I was arrested and immediately sent back to the Asylum. There I was locked up in a cell by^ myself, and not allowed to go out, except for the few minutes' exercise each day across the dzjmp court-yard, for six weeks, when, through my wife's intercession with Governor Normanby, I was released from ihe institution altogether. During my final sojourn there I was kept without flesh-meat for three whole days. Two of my little children died. I asked to be allowed to see them before they died. My applications were refused. Had it not been for my wife's, interview with Governor Normanby I should most likely be in the Asylum at present. On being liberated I went to Dr Skae to complain of WTutelaw's behaviour in keeping two suits of clothes which belonged to me. He gave me a cheque for five guineas. While in the Asylum I was only allowed to see my wife three times. Even when my children died they refused her admission. Cross-ex-amined: I would not have run away had Whitelaw been a humane person. He had two screws made specially for mo ; they were fixed to the strait-jacket, and were intended to prevent me moving my arms. The Commissioners here expressed a desire to interrogate Mrs Mclntosh, who was present in Court. Rosannah. Mclntosh, wife of the previous witness, said, — I remember my husband being committed to the Asylum. I only saw him three times while he was there. I went to see him oftener, but they told me I could not see him. I was refused at least twice. I saw him once when he had the screws, in his strait--1 jacket. He was perfectly quiet* and

talked quite rationally. I was never 8 left alone with him. There was always B a warder or Whitelaw present at our in- S terviews. Since his discharge he has B conducted himself as an ordinary per- B, son would. He has had rheumatics in fl the head occasionally since his release, BOnce I went up with my little boy to W see him— the boy that was dying. They fl would not allow an interview. [The fl witness here broke down, but 'presently H recovered, and continued her evidence.] I I was told he would be kept in for pun- S ishment if he again tried to escape, fl Once I tried to see him, but, after knock- ■ ing at the Asylum door for some thne ( I fl had to go away again, because no one fl would open it. Another time I have sat RS on the doorsteps all night. I had to be V assisted by the Benevolent Institution, fl [The remainder of the witness's evidence 8 corroborated that given by her husband.] B The Commissioners, at ten minutes to I 6 o'clock, adjourned till 2 p.m. to-day. 1