DORSETSHIRE DWELLINGS.— TERRIBLE DISCLOSU ES.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIX, Issue 4931, 14 June 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

DORSETSHIRE DWELLINGS.— TERRIBLE DISCLO SU ES.

A ase illustrating the deplorable state of of the dwellings of the poor m Doiset has just bean investigated before the County Magistiates .it Wiinborue. Thomas Young, in the employ, as a labourer, of Me JLajiror (.'olus, of lLollwell, was summoned for committing a uuiaai.ee l>y bleeping m a loom unfit for human habitation, on a liltliy bed of lags anil chatF, together with a growu-up son and daughtei. Defendant lives in a cottage in P^ o-l me, Cranbotne, and a summons has been losued against the landlord The following evidence against the defeadant Young will speak for itself: — Mr. T. G. J3ell, ichoving oilicerof Cianhorne, deposed I went with Pohco-scrgeaut Webb on Decoinbei L'.'i, about JO o'clock at nijjlifc, anil knocked at the door. The man Young eamo downstair, paitly undressed, and admitted us. The house has two looms, one downstaus and the other upstairs, each of them about three yaids square — wheio we found an apology foi a bed, made of rags. Tho d inghter, a gul about eighteen jeais of ag-\ i just getting up, and was putting on lici' _, The sou, about eighteen or ninoteeu j of age, was Ijmg on the bed, picteno g to no asleep. They ill slept in the same room. The stench was so bad that when I got out of the home I was s^uk. In the bottom room them was nothing but eaith fora floor. — Police-sergeant Webb corio'ioiated this testimony. /L'iieie was no fiunitme in the house but a small table downstaus. Theie is no fireplace m either room, and only one small window. The owiiPi of the house lives m a place quite as bad. Ho is a dirty old man. I h ivo visited the house soveial tnnos bofore, and reported it once to .Mi Carnegie at an inquest on the body of one of tho girl's children which had died. — The Bench : The matter (.u^htto have been taken up by tho Inspector ot Nuisances. What do you get a week 1 ' — Pusoner: Ten shillings. — The Bench (to tho pnsoncr's daughter, a wietehed girl in lags) : How old are you '—Prisoner : 1 don't know. — The Bench (to the pnsonor) : How old is she 9 — Pusoncr : I don't kuow ; she's called Mana ; but she's never been to school. — Mr. Bell : I believe she is about eighteen years of age. — The Bench : Where does your son work' — Prisoner: He works where I d<>, and gets '23. a week and his victuals. — The Bench: Whit rent do you pay '' — Prisoner • la. a weok — The Rev C'arr J. Glyn (to the girl) : Would you like to lead a bettor life if we get you a place ' — C4ii 1 : No. — The Bench : Cannot you got a lodging somewhere else ? — fhil : No — Pusoncr: Yls you cau , I'll get you lodgings a. id pay for them L rent my place of Charles Edwards, in Pye-Line. — Mi Bell : Edwards has three of the cottages , the proper^' js freehold, and was given to lOdwiuds's father by the late M irqius of Salisbury. — Th» Bench made an oidei, with the cost 1 *, for the abatement of the nuisance foithwich, add a penalty of 10s. daily for non-compliance therewith. Tho case against the landloid is to be he.nd at the ne\t session^.