G. CRAIG

45

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signs of the petit mal, and (2) that you do not consider the man to be insane. Both may be quite true, but as I am the man who certified Johnston I consider I have a right to question the advisability of your action in writing to Mrs. Johnston as you did, and, secondly, in alloxving yourself to be interviewed on the subject by a Press reporter. Surely you might have avoided the limelight for a little, even if you couldn't do so altogether —at least until the latter was cleared up, for we are all liable to be wrong sometimes, you as well as the rest of us. Now for the logic of your letter. I quote from it verbatim : ' With regard to the petit mal, 1 have the medical statement on the one hand and his Hat denial on the other, and I must give him the benefit of the doubt.' Your position, therefore, is, I take it, as follows—viz., that you put the flat denial of an alleged lunatic, xvho in his anxiety to be free makes accordingly a biased statement, and the statement of his wife, whose anxiety to free her husband makes her statement biased also, before the unbiased statements of txvo medical men who. as any thinking person will admit, have a grave responsibility in view of the fact that Johnston had once attempted murder, and that not long previously. Surely, in view of the statements on the certificates the public is entitled to the benefit of the doubt, if any exists. As for making a pilgrimage to Waihi to investigate, the police can furnish you with data by letter. Did you write to the police before writing as you did to Mrs. Johnston or before you allowed yourself to be interviewed by a Press reporter? Putting it mildly, it is not nice to read of Press interviews regarding the private affairs of one's patient, even if you happened not to share the opinions of the men xvho sent him to your care. 1 have not the slightest doubt that Johnston xvas insane, and dangerously so, when I signed him up, and I think that in all probability he is insane still. —Yours sincerely, George Craig." 184. That letter xvas written? —On the 16th January 185. Johnston in the meantime had escaped from Avondale? —1 think he escaped after that, did he not? I did not knoxv he had escaped then, I think. 186. He escaped on the 4th. As a matter of fact, the Press interview that you refer to is on the subject of Johnston's escape, and is the result of his escape and xvriting to the Press? —I am not so sure of that. 187. Are you axvare that Dr. Beattie denied before this Committee having given that interview? —No. All I know is that I saw a report of an interview between a Press reporter and the Medical Superintendent of Avondale regarding that patient. 188. 1 think Dr. Beattie said that an article had appeared in the Auckland Herald and that you apparently had jumped to the conclusion that he was responsible for it?— There xvas no jumping to a conclusion. The Herald can be produced to show that it xvas a Press interview. 189. This,, at any rate, was long subsequent to Johnston's escape?—l do not knoxv that it was. 190. Johnston's escape took place on the 4th January?—l may not have knoxvn of that at the time. 191. After that had you any further communication with Dr. Beattie? —Rather. There is a letter there. I think it called forth a reply from Dr. Beattie in xvhich he closed the correspondence. 'Ihe letter contained more abuse than argument. I think I replied to him, and he did not acknowledge the receipt of my letter. It was quite a nice one, too.

Dr. Thomas Joseph Calligan sworn and examined. (No. 8.) 1. The Chairman.] You are a medical practitioner, practising at Waihi? —Yes. 2. Hon. Mr. Fisher.] Will you make a statement with regard to your committal of Johnston? —On the 14th December I xvas sent for by the police to come over to see this man, Thomas Henry Johnston. 1 found him in the police office; he was walking up and down the room that I xvent into. He xvas very upset and irritable-looking and wild ;he was clenching his hands, his eves were moving about, and he was biting his lips. 1 asked him what brought him there. He .said that I knew perfectly well He continued walking up and down. 1 said, " What are you walking up and down for? " He said. " I have a lot of worry on me " in tact, he said he had financial worry enough to make any fellow very despondent, or something to that effect. Then he told me he xvould tell me no more, that it was something clubbed betxveen us, or something to that effect. I xvent out, and thought it was safer to see his wife. I xvent up with Dr. Craig and saw his wife. At the beginning she would not give us much information. Later on she became more talkative. She told us that her husband had been very upset lately: that on one occasion some time before they had had a fruit-farm, and the season turned out a bad one and Mr. Johnston lost a lot of money by it, which worried him a good deal, and he kept on worrying daily over this. One night late, between 1 I and 12. while she was asleep in bed, she was suddenly axvakened by a shot in her right arm. 3. To put it in a nutshell, you went up and saw Mrs. Johnston, and she made a statement to you about the shooting incident? —Yes. 4. Did she give you any information about Johnston himself—as to his mental condition or his antecedents? —Yes. 5. What did she tell you?— She told us there was some trouble with his family. 6. What was the nature of it?— Some marriage business. 7. That would be the marriage of his mother xvith his stepfather?— Something like that. 8. Did she tell you anything about his father or his grandfather?— She said there was something xvrong with him —that he was more or less inclined to take some kind of queer fits, and that it would be transmitted to the family. 9. After the interview what did you do—go back to the police-station?— Yes.