UNKNOWN

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 142, 14 June 1912, Page 7

UNKNOWN

SPIRITUALISTS IN COURT.

The Auckland Police Court touches many sides of the city life, but yesterday it impinged on a quarter w-hich is rarely approached by even so iaT-reaphing an institution as the Police Court," when a full circle of spiritualists engaged in the inafefiallstie occupation of defending their "medium" against a charge of the ill-treatment and wilful neglect of a 12-year-old boy.

The admitted circumstances of the case were that somewhere about twelve years ago the prpcreator of a little "not wanted" shifted his responsibility by the payment of £100 to a woman who adopted the child. A year or so later this woman transferred the child and £10 to Mrs. Mary Warwick, but she 'and her husband fell on evil , days, and they were glad to turn the boy over, some six years ago, for nothing, to friends in Mrs. Gertrude Sorenson and her husband, who had no issue, and were much better able than Mrs. Warwick to care for the young3ter, and were pleased to do so. From \hen on the boy was kept by the Sorrensons, and thus came he in touch with the spiritualists. For while Peter Sorrenson in everyday life is a humble Scandinavian maker of oilskin coats, his wife Gertrude is a woman of Moorish complexion and cast of feature, and a "medium"; and so the Sorrenson household, including the boy "Cyril Sorrenson," became the head and front of a spiritualistic circle in Upper Queeasfareet.

The boy did not flourish in his surroundings. He was for his degenerate habits expelled from two public schools, and recently inquiries hy the Society for the Protection of Children caufeii Peter Sorrenson to return him after he came from school the other day to Mrs. Warwick. She sent; him to the Grey Lynn school for a day, but he came back with a swelled face, and, fearing the spread of mumps to a delicate daughter, she wrapped his face in flannel, and took him to the office of the Protection Society, diselaiminir any further liability. With the glaiids of his throat so swelled that he coui,l not speak, the nariah boy was sent, per medium of She police, to the hospital; where three weeks' treatment was needed to make hi™ welL The doctor considered the boy must have been bad for a week prior to his reception into the hospital, and the ipolice instituted a charge of ill-treatment and wilful neglec; against Mr. and Mrs. Warwick and Mr. and Mrs. Sorrenson.

This precipitated the Police Court seance. Mr. Henry Wilding said tnat the Protection Society had had complaints that the boy was ill-treated, but it was their policy never to reveal their sources of information. Peter Sorrenson, chief spiritualist, gave evidence, which imputed that the on-goings of "the church" had aroused the dark suspicions and hostility of some of his neighbours. The production of his marriage lines had been necessary to kill one little rumour concerning himself and his wife, and then the illegitimacy of the child had ■been charged to him. This was followed by neighbourly talk of ill-treatment. There was an impish spirit in the boy, who on one occasion raided "the church's" money-box, and because of his slatternly and untruthful habits had) once or twice to be chastised, though each time the punishment was not more than was proper. He* was difficult tq nonage—too difficult for his wile, who was in delicate health, and had sev6a -fainting fits in' one -day. ■^'Three adherents'of ■^the.^hurch, , *'pate of them.fthe secretary, and , all of them sedate, and anything but ethereal-look-in» matrons, testified to having been frequently in the house, and having observed that the boy was well-clad, nourished and cared for. The secretary lady had no qualms whatever in attributing the complaints to the Protection Society to malice. One buxom mother of five remarked on a characteristic the boy had of screaming out when merely checked, and she considered Mrs. Sorrenson too soft-hearted to be unkind. A bright,' but serious-minded' lady in gold-rimmed pince-nez, who came as a spiritualist spoke similarly, and in a low, clairvoyant-like utterance, which was 'barely audible, Mrs Sorrenson corroborated her husbands remarks. . . ~ . ■Mr Cutten, &M-, t° dissipate the spiritualist atmosphere of the evidence for the defence, adjourned the ca»e till Monday, in • order thaj he might get from the school teachers who had had the boy in hand just two or three days before 7 his transfer to Mr. Wilding office, their testimony on the boy s physical appearance and well-being.