RELIGIOUS READING

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 301, 28 December 1935, Page 2

RELIGIOUS READING

FOB THE SABBATH — A MODERN HERCULES Dear People, Somewhere in New Zealand a young man roams at large, a menace to society despite his own goodwill and his own good intentions. We will give him the fictitious name of ■Charlie, together with his only too voracious history. Charlie was trained at Templeton, where there is an excellent institution for fitting subnormal children to be of use in the world. Having profited by the instruction and discipline surrounding him at Templeton, Charlie was discharged on probation and obtained a situation with private people. In his work the young man proved himself Willing and conscientious, but naturally very deficient mentally. He remained in the position in question for some months, during which time his employers came to have a regard for him, but they learned to dread his periodic fierce outbreaks of temper and lack of sexual control. Eventually Charlie wandered on to another situation—and then to another, and still another; and his original employers lost all trace of him. At the present time they are concerned both on his account as well as on account of the community at large; for were Charlie to commit some violent ■crime, it would be only what might , be expected, in view of his condition , of mental instability. In the whole ' of New Zealand there is not one single home for feeble-minded adults. Charlie and his fellows must either ' roam the country, utterly irrespons- 1 ible at times for their own actions; i or they must be confined within mental institutions side by side with the actually mentally diseased. Should the worst happen (as it , often does, with these poor, over- ' grown children of the feeble-minded > condition), Charlie will be placed on j trial for his crime; while the crime

of a country that callously permits the feeble-minded to roam at large in the community will receive not the slightest condemnation. Dr. Mildred Staley has told us that the best minds of every nation—and even the International Mind at Geneva—are concerning themselves with the scientific prevention of crime, as well as with the humane treatment of the offender, to the end that he may be restored, where possible, to normality. It is the province of the lepw to investigate Charlie’s crime, and it should be equally the province of the psychological clinician to investigate Charlie's mental condition. However, in the event of an infringement of the law, his affairs will follow the generality of such cases, in his being given a longer or shorter sentence in prison, afterwards being removed to one of our asylums.

So far, so good, says the average citizen. Charlie will be safe behind

iron bars, in an asylum, where he will be left to “get on with it,” and the community will be able to breathe easily once again. Charlie himself I will meanwhile endure his sentence, his term in the asylum; and upon his good behaviour will probably receive his discharge in due course; and the story will begin all over again (plus a few new little citizens of the mentally deficient order) — Charlie’s mind, the cause of all the trouble, past, present and to come, remaining uninvestigated and untouched. The problem involved is no matter merely of theoretical, financial or political administration. It is a problem concerning vitally the everyday life and thoughts of all who aspire to the name of Christian—scientist, schoolmaster and share-milker alike. I Yours sincerely, , I “SILENT PETER.” ] I