PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 11

PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

isT lELIGBAPH —FECES ASSOCIATION.! . Duncdin, May 22. At'the annual'meeting of the Society for the Protection of .Women and Children the annual report stated that the number of cases dealt with was 114 as compared with 90 last year and 107 in the preceding year. The cases include 16 of ill-usage and cruel neglect of children, 11 of runaway husbands, 19 of drunken husbands, one drunk on wife, and one drunken mother, and some cases of affiliation (settled mostly out of Court),.whilst the remainder were divided amongst cases of the unmanageable daughters, petty thefts by girls, complaints re neglect to pay for maintenance of children. Among the cases of urgent distress the saddest wore cases of young girls—riiothors under sixteen for whom no adequato redress could be obtained owing to tho limitation of timo allowed by Act under which proceedings could bo taken. Tho following resolution was carried: "That it is highly dcsirahlo and necessary that female factory inspectors be reappointed and that a deputation interview tho Minister for Labour on the matter." ■Charles Landseer, brother of tho artist, was for years tho victim of an extraordinary persecution:—"An eccentric woman fell desporately in love with him, nnd usod to pestor, him, first with tho most extravagant loveletters, and then by lying in wait for him whenover ho left tho house. Finally she issued invitations to the wedding, prepared ii breakfast and an enormous cake, and called for poor Mr. Lnwlsoer in a carriage and pair —the horses dccked out with white satin streamers, and she herself dressed most gorgeously as a bride. But that was tho end of tho persecution. Her friends took her away, and Mr. Lnndsccr, relieved from her attentions, breathed freely, and regained a bachelor to the day of Mb death-" 1