The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1893.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 210, 5 September 1893, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1893.

For fts canss that lacks assistanca, For tho ■srrons that needs resistance, For the fatura in the distance, Aiii the good that tts can do.

We learn from our Wellington corres. pondent, that the Infant Life Protec. tion Bill, of which the Hon. Mr Reeves has given notice, has been drafted and will shortly be submitted to Parliament' Probably few persons were aware of the extent to which baby farming is carried on in this colony, and of the many objectionable features associated with it> till the report of the Commissioner of Police, recently laid upon the table of the House, threw a decidedly unpleasant light upon the subject. With regard to baby-farming, Colonel Hume declares, " That this evil exists there can be no doubt, and it appears that children, either by advertisement or otherwise, are placed in most unsuitable homes, where it is perfectly well understood that the sooner the child dies the better pleased all concerned will be." The report continues : " Another system of disposing of infants is by socalled adoption, where children are taken for a lump sum entirely off their mothers' hands. Provided no more questions are asked sums from £6 to are paid down as premium, and for such helpless infants there is absolutely no protection." In order to check the cvii, the report recommends that a law should be enacted, similar to that which is in force in England. The text of the new Bill is not yet to hand, but we understand that its main provisions are similar to those contained in the English Act. Any person who adopts or takes' charge of an infant other than its parents will be required to register the fact with the police, who must also be notified of the address at which the child is to be kept, and of any sub,3equent changes of residence. The places in which children are being reared will therefore be known to the authorities, and the police will have power to inspect the children, and also the premises in which they are kept.

The numerous exposures connected with baby farming in England during the last few years have excited great indignation, but, despite all the vigilance of the authorities, numbers of harpies continue to pursue their infamous calling, and hundreds of children are every year done to death under circumstances which cannot be contemplated without shuddering,^ The Act for the protection of infant life was passed by the British Parliament in 1872, when the public mind was strongly agitated by a series of disclosures which showed that a wholesale destruction of life was carried on by a cumber of' callous wretches who made a living by preying on infaui misery. In some instances the children were allowed to die simply from cold and want of nourishment and in others they were murdered in cold blood. A thrill of horror went through English society at the revelations made at the trial of Charlotte Winsor, who was sentenced to death at the Exeter Assizes in 1865. The death penalty in the case ot this infamous woman, who had murdered at least half a dozen infants in the most barbarous manner, was, owing to some questions with regard to irregularities at the trial, finally commuted to imprisonment for life. The plan adopted; by Winsor, according to the evidence of an accomplice, was "to put her finger under the jugular vein," and, so far from finding the task uncongenial, it was said she had expressed her willingness to oblige anyone who would pay her for the job. In 1870 a new chapter of horrors was presented to the public in connection with the Brixton baby-farming case, in which Margaret Waters played the most prominent part. This woman and her sister had successively resided in a number of j different houses, and in each had carried on a ghastly system similar to that practiced by the Makins in Sydney. In each locality in which they had resided the dead bodies of infants were subsequently found. It was proved that Waters had been accustomed to visit railway stations where infants were delivered to her, and of about 40 received in this way, a large number had perished from want of nourishment Waters endeavoured to show that the children had died of convulsions and diarrhoea, but in the case of one child with whose death she was charged her guilt was fully established, and she was eventually hanged at Horsemonger Lane Gaol.

It appears, from recent reports of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the gruesome system of baby farming still flourishes in England. Of course, in many cases women who place children out to " farm," do so without any intention of destroying them, but, in other instances, unwedded mothers, to conceal their own shame, connive at the death of their wretched offspring. Sometimes a weekly sum is paid, with the understanding that the unhappy child will be allowed to slowly pine to death. One case was given in the Society's report, in which a mother had placed two children with a baby farmer, and she actually visited them at times to see that they were being treated " expeditiously." But the more usual practice is to pay down a lump sum with the understanding that the child is " adopted " by the receiver, and that the mother will be no more

troubled with it. It is computed that more than 55,000 children are born in illegitimacy every year in England, and of these nearly 1,100 are killed off annually, most of them being slowly tortured to death by the inhuman wretches to whose care they are entrusted.

Stringent restrictions with regard to baby farming exist in New South Wales, but the Makin case shows how easily the law may be evaded. In that colony persons who receive infants for gain have to duly register their names and places of abode. This restriction applies to children up to three years of age, and a lump premium for a child is prohibited. Payment is not allowed to be made more than four weeks in advance, or at a higher rate than £1 per week. Yet,^ in spite of these measures, the number of ascertained cases of infanticide for gain in Sydney showed a decided increase last year. In New Zealand we have had no cases comparing in ghastly horrors with those that have occurred recently in an adjacent colony. But the language of Colonel Hume is significant. As the result of investigations made by his officers he finds that children are placed in most unsuitable homes, and the sooner they die off the better pleased are all concerned. Where such feeling exists the practice of getting rid of children by neglect must, follow as a matter of course. Even in Auckland we have not been without instances whereinfants were wretchedly clothed and half starved by persons who were paid to take charge of them. The system of adopting children for money is also open to grave abuses, and judging from the frequent advertisements that appear the practice is on the increase. We are not sanguine enough to suppose that even the most stringent enactments will wholly eradicate the evil, but the provisions contained in Mr Reeves' Bill, if rigorously enforced, ought to act as a powerful check upon the growing abuses connected with the system of baby-farming in this colony.