WESTLAND ASYLUM

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14713, 30 July 1921, Page 5

WESTLAND ASYLUM

BISHOP JULIUS SPEAKS OUT. A DISGRACEFUL INSTITUTION. APPEAL FOR IMPROVEMENT. By Telegraph. —Press Association. " CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. “I am not exaggerating when I say that the mental hospital at Hokitika is a disgrace to a civilised community,” Bishop Julius said to-day. “Men are sheltered all night in an old gaol which is alongside the mental hospital, and which on account of the overcrowding of the mental hospital was attached to it. The old gaol always was an abominable hole —cold, dirty, and dark in the daytime. The men are crowded into a fair-sized room, but there is no possible classification of them. The women are in a still worse case. Their sanitation, dwellingroom and yards, apart from the cleanliness which members of the staff try to maintain, are shocking—absolutely shocking. The site on the hill above the borough could not be surpassed, but the use made of that advantage is disgraceful. The institution is on the West Coast, and is out of sight and out of mind. Only those who are in it, those who are associated with its work, and a few others know of the condition. I visited it when I was on the West Coast this week, and I wish other visitors to the West Coast would see it also. If they did they would support the appeal I now make for improvement or for a public remonstrance.” Bishop Julius spoke highly of the members of the staff who, he said, did their best under impossible conditions.