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Press, Volume XIX, Issue 2818, 14 May 1872, Page 2

A statement published in the last issue of the Victorian Police Gazette shows the difficulty which is experienced in gel ting parents whose children have been sent to the industrial and reformatory schools to contribute to the maintenance of their offspring in these institutions. On the 28th March nearly BSO persons who had been required to pay something towards the cost of their children's maintenance were in arrear with their payments. Some had not contributed for three years, while others were only Tecent defaulters, and the amounts in arrear ranged from £135 ISs 8d down to is (sd. In the majority of instances, however, the amounts were considerable. In each case the " last known address" of the defaulter is given, which seems to show that the persons referred to in the return have either escaped from their responsibilities, or have been proceeded against with unsatisfactory results. Judging from the amounts due, the majority of 380 defaulters were chargeable with the support of several children, so that the number of inmates thrown entirely upon the bounty of the state must be very considerable,

A case disclosing a rather peculiar state of morals cropped up in the Sand ridge Police Court lately. Two little children, named Richard and Alexander SL'Couchie, aged respectively four and one and a-half years old, were charged with being neglected children. From the evidence given by the constable it appeared that the mother of the children was married to a man named Thwaites, whom she left about twelve years ao-o and took up with M'Couchie. She lived with this man until a few months ago, and then left him because he would not marry her. and went into service, leaving the two children alone in the streets. M'Couchie was proceeded against for the maintenance of the children a week ago. and the case was dismissed, the Bench holding that the father was liable unless he could prove non-access. The man Thwaites is said to be living somewhere about Melbourne, married to another woman, by whom he has a family of five or six children. The two little waifs were sent to the Industrial School for a period of seven years. M'Couchie is a lumper, earning, from 12s to 14s per week, aud he is keeping two of Mrs Thwaites , children, but refuses to support the younger ones. The husband has not been seen for the last five years.

The danger to the public health from the burning of arsenical pyrites in the neighborhood of dwellings is illustrated by the following case, which has been brought under the notice of the Bendlgo Independent : — " Some time since, a man living in a hut with a galvanised iron roof situate in close proximity to Koch's crushing machine, in Long Gully, was taken ill, and removed to the hospital. He was there, the symptoms being slight though the disease appeared serious, treated tentatively, and recovered sufficiently to be discharged. Hardly had this been the case when his mate, who was suffering from a precisely similar form of disease, was admitted into the same institution, and the coincidence at once attracted attention. An examination proved that the usual sign of arsenical slow poisoning was present —the white line on the nail—and Dr M - Gillivray and Dr Stuart drove out to the hut, where they found, not only the roof coated with an arsenical compound, but an arsenical sediment in the tank of water attached te the premises. The first man again betrayed symptoms of poisoning, and an examination proved beyond doubt that a second poisoning had commenced. Under proper treatment both are out of danger."

A curjous story was told at the Melbourne City Court. A girl named Mary Jane Peat went to the Immigrants' Home, having quitted the house at which she had been left, by her father. She said her step-mother ill-treated her brutally, and that she did not know what had become of her father lately. She was being taken to the City Court as a neglected child, when she met a man whom she claimed as her father; and the man, who did not. deny It, came to the Court also. He said his name was John Scott Peat, that he lived at 19, Cardigan-street, Carlton, and that the girl was seventeen years old. The girl was very stunted, and not at all good-looking, but she seemed very miserable, and to have experienced a good deal of suffering. Peat said she was " under the jurisdiction of a Btepmother," who ill-treated her in every way, by beating her, throwing hot water over her, and otherwise. He said he would have brought the conduct of his wife, to whom he had been married eeven years—before the Court, bat that he did not want to make a show of himself. He had been away for the last few days, and in the meantime the girl apparently had run away, but he was willing to place her under a friend's charge, and pay for her support. He said he dared not spend a shilling for fear of his wife, and that his life was not worth threepence, because if he were an hour from home she thought he was with this child, and she made gross charges against him. He had three children living now, and had buried two. Three were by a former wife. Inspector Kahat said it was a most disgraceful thing that the man had not brought the ill-treatment of the girl under the notice of the court. He applied for a remand, in order that the police might make inquiries and act accordingly. The girl was therefore remanded, being in the meanwhile sent to the Immigrants' Home, the father to pay for her support there.

The Coromandcl Mail says • —The Honorable Dillon Bell, and Mr J. C. Richmond have each been addressing public meetings iv the south, the former gentleman when explaining his conduct to his constituents, and the latter on seeking the suffrages of the people of Nelson, for a seat in the House of Representatives. Mr Bell's utterances are only of importance from his previous connection with the present Ministry, and his presumed knowledge of their future policy. Like all ob-. servant men, however, Mr Bell sees that the public mind is rapidly changing, and that an attempt will be made at the next session of tlje General Assembly to put an end to the present reckless expenditure, and he is most careful not to pledge himself to any particular line of action. He does not tell us that he is satisfied with tha results already achieved by the enormous expenditure during the last twelve months, or that he is at all confident as to the future of the public works' scheme; but he complained of the excessive cost of collecting the present revenue, and shadowed forth further taxation. Mr Richmond, on the other hand, told his audience that the House of Representatives had become an arena for place hunters, and spoke out truthfully and manfully against the policy of the present Ministry. Mr Bell thinks that "no Government could now adopt a retrograde course." What Mr Bell means is not very clear. We have to determine first what retrogression means. Why, in the name of reason, what has the colony been doing for the past two years but retrograding ? The ordinary revenue has been steadily falling off, whilst the ordinary expenditure has been as steadily increasing. And the interest and sinking fund on our loans have in a large measure been paid out of funds raised by additional loans, and the issuing of Treasury Bills. This is the boasted " progress" of the present Ministry ? Well may the people from one end of the colony to the other begin to ask i( Where are the railways, and where are the immigrants?"