The Case of Mary O'Connor.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 232, 3 October 1887, Page 2

The Case of Mary O'Connor.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,-—As Mary O'Connor is now being cared for at the public expense, her name and her circumstances have naturally become public property. But where and who is the coward who skulks behind, and leaves others to bear the cost of his own misdoing? A father is bound to provide for his child at its birth and afterwards, and for the mother for a time at least, and has no right to repudiate his obligation because it is one he ought not to have incurred. It is the fashion in some quarters to speak _as if the public were bound to relieve men of this responsibility, and thus to offer to those who may be tempted to fall into sin the encouragement of knowing that they will, as far as possible, be shielded from its consequences. In the present case, as in all others of a similar nature, justice requires that the man's name as well as the woman's should be made public, and that he should provide for the necessary expenses, instead of leaving the burden to be borne by others. It Mary O'Connor is to be put upon trial, so in fairness should the man, wherever he may be, to whose selfish neglect her unhappy position is owing.—Yours truly, MakySteadman Alms.