A SHOCKING STORY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 65, 10 December 1907, Page 6

A SHOCKING STORY.

DEN OF VAGRANTS AT AUCKLAND. THREE WOMEN AND A MAN. (FROM OUE SPECIAL COHRESriSDENT.) Auckland, December 9. Tho, following lurid description of the appalling squalor of a den of vagrants discovered by the police is given by tho "Star":— At the Police Court, on Saturday, four persons, three women and a man, were brought up on charges of vagrancy and consorting with people of ill-repute. The charges wore the result of a raid by Sergoant Ramsay and Detectives M'Mahon and li'ahoy, on a house in Federal Street, rented by an old woman named Annie Webster.

The health authorities were subsequently communicated with, ' and in the a'ftornoon Inspector Grieve, accompanied by a representative of tho "Star," proceeded to the don, a two-roomed .habitation, part of a wooden building, explained Chief Detective Marsack to tho Court, that, was some time ago condemned by tho health authorities, but which, somehow or other, remains still in existence. That part of tho shanty raided was found to bo in an indescribably filthy and pestiferous state. The sleeping apartment, a low-coiled room, about 10ft. by Bft., being occupied at the time by three women and a man, lying in a semidrunken condition upon somo filthy rags, partly spread about the reeking floor, and partly on the only article of furniture—an awful-looking bedstead. The "front" room, presumably tho "living" and reception room of this hall of vice, was luxuriously furnished, with a dangerously infected-look-ing table on various sized legs, and a sundry collection ■of damaged crockcrywaro hanging upon some dissipated nails above a cupboard in which were the ■ shuddersome remnants of a recent feast. . The. lloor of botli. rooms was swimming with liquid filth, and the spur remains of several dozen

empty beer bottles scattered abroad in careless profusion, the whole place . being in' a state too disgusting for detailed description. The first denizen of this domicile appeared in tho person of a prematurely wrinkled and case-hardened woman, named Annie Carroll, • with a long list of aliases. This creature, said Mr. Marsack, • had been convicted at various times of pretty well all tho petty crimes on the calendar, and was for long one of tho notorious women of the water front. The raid had been made as tho result of suspicions aroused by tho knowledge of frequent visits by night to the place in question by mon in a drunken state, while the sound •of frequont Bacchanalian orgies from, behind tho shuttered windows spoke very eloquently 'of tho hideous happenings within. .

. Inspector Grieve said that ho had .taken immediate steps, upon seeing tho fearful place, to acquaint the local authorities. The owner of the premises was not at present In town, but his agent had been notified. Ho Had treated the case, in fact, as one of great urgency. Most of the contents should, iii Ms opinion, be burned. His Worship, after commenting upon the shocking condition in which the woman was found, together with her deplorable record, sentenced her to 18 months' imprisonment with hard labour.

Tho old woman, Annie Webster, was nest ushered into court, wearing 65 years, some scanty rags, and no boots or stockings to covor the nakedness of her feet. When charged .with being a vagabond she energetically protested that she was never a va*-' rant, had never before beon in a policqjcourt, unci was supported by her son. Mr. Marsack decided to withdraw,the vagrancy chargo, and indicted her merely for consorting. Detective M'Mahon then enlightened the magistrate as to what he knew of some acquaintances possessed by tho old woman J. lie records of most of-her visitors were unsavoury to a degree, according to the detective, and the unfortunate old dame herself was kept in a pretty well perpetual stato of drunkenness by liquor supplied by these various scoundrels. • In reply to His Worship, Mrs. Webster agreed to the issue of a prohibition order but when some mention was made of. findine her a comfortable home, she showed signs; of demurring, her own .filthy habitation lTaving known her m long that "use had made it second nature" for her to wallow there content. Ihe Salvation Array officor in court offered to take her to the Army's institution at Parnell, and care for her as'long as she hked to stay, but to this the woman still murmured. V,l7i\$ 0 " r Worship but -what about my bits of things at homo? I've been a good many years m that street.' your Worship" she pleaded, bugging her filthy garments to »w rl ii h .. tho "bits of things." I \f' i j e ? lled j ho "they will be attended o and we wfll find'you a goo home. ,1 will convict you on the charge of habitually, consor ,ng, but if you go to the W o a f 10n Q1 n 7, 1,0m ° yo " will nofc be sen° tenced. Should you return to your old haunts, however, you will be sent to And the JgetUame waddled 'reluctantly out to a comfortable homo and prohibition. The third woman," a 'middle-aged' creature named Anme Tinsloy, was sent to' gaol fo? a term of threp months. . The ■ man, ' James Thompson, a hulkine BK-footoi;, was ordered to stand down to be dealt with at the hands of Mr; Kettle, last month released, this man with an. order to come up for sentence when required on' a similar charge upon his promise to go into tlTfy a !«\g e t Wfcn he\e-a° pared be ore the magistrate half an hour later his shrift was a short one, Mr Rett o instructing the prosecution to draw up an application that Thompson .bo dealt with a" an habitual criminal. .Should, Thompson, be II " W^ llo Supreme Court for disposal as an habitual, and his conviction as such follows, he .will-have the unenviable distinc' taon of being the first of that order of criminal to be finally dealt with" in Auckland Some 'months"back another man was convicted, as an "habitual," but no institution was then ,„ existence, for the reception of this class of culprit 'Since then, however, a penitentiary has been prepared ' for' their reception at New Plymouth