OBSTRUCTED ORDER FOR REMOVAL OF CHILD

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22109, 3 June 1937, Page 9

OBSTRUCTED ORDER FOR REMOVAL OF CHILD

FATHER PLEADS GUILTY AT MASTERTON (PRESS ASSOCIATION TNUSOBAM.) MASTERTON, June 2. When Inspector Russell, of Masterton. attempted to have two children suffering from diphtheria removed from their home to hospital, he was badly received, and reference was made to a gun. The inspector communicated with the Health Department and an order was sent requiring the children to be removed. This the inspector attempted to carry out. going to the house with an ambulance and police. The police kept in the background, and when the inspector presented his order it was snatched out of his hand and destroyed. Some violence was used, and also an ambulance bearer as well as a constable were assaulted, and the inspector came away without executing the order. Evidence along these lines was given in the Magistrate’s Court t,o-day, when John Leslie Fulton appeared on a charge, under section 84 of the Health Act, 1920. with obstructing an order for the removal of his child to hospital. It was stated that the defendant had recently lost a child from diphtheria, and two others had developed it. On counsel for the defendant being assured that the order was rightly made, he said there was no defence to the charge, and after conferring with the defendant, intimated that he would now give an undertaking that there would be no further obstruction. Counsel pleaded very extenuating circumstances. The was adjourned until tomorrow morning.