Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders / Report of the Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the Hon. Sir Maui Pomare, K.B.E., C.M.G., Minister of Health - New Zealand. Committee of Inquiry into Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders

These principles appear to us to be quite sound, and we have no hesitation in adopting them.

Proposed Eugenic Board.

In regard to the method of compiling the register, some excellent suggestions were made by Dr. Theodore Grant Gray, Medical Superintendent of the Nelson Mental Hospital. He proposed, first, that a Government Department or sub-department should be created to deal with all feeble-minded and mentally defective persons living outside institutions. It would deal not only with the feeble-minded, but it would act the part of a Government "after-care association," in that it would keep in touch with all persons discharged from mental hospitals. One of its duties would be to keep a register of all feeble-minded, epileptic, and mentally defective persons living outside institutional care. Dr. Gray further suggests that the register should be compiled in the following manner:—

(1.) It would be a statutory duty of all School Medical Officers to report to the Department the names of all feeble-minded or epileptic children in their districts.

(2.) It would be the duty of the District Education Board to report any child of school age who was not attending school because of feeble-mindedness or epilepsy.

(3.) It would be the duty of the Superintendent, owner, or licensee of every hospital, private hospital, industrial school, or reformatory prison to notify the Department upon the admission of any person suffering from feeble-mindedness or epilepsy.

(4.) It would be the duty of the Superintendent of every mental hospital to notify the name of every person discharged from a mental hospital.

(5.) It would be the duty of every Judge or Magistrate in all cases brought before him in which there appears to be mental enfeeblement or epilepsy to call to his assistance an alienist, and, if the report is confirmatory, to order such person's name to be placed upon the register.

N.B.—In the case of sections 1, 2, and 3 the Department would apply to a Magistrate for an order to register the person concerned. In section 4 the process would be automatic.