A SON AND HIS MOTHER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 51, 28 August 1914, Page 8

A SON AND HIS MOTHER

FAILURE TO MAINTAIN. '

"He's my only 'son, and I wish I had never seen him/ said an elderly woman in the Magistrate's Court to-day when giving evidence against Joseph Dowling, who was charged with failing to provide for his mother. The case was first mentioned in the Court yesterday;, whe-tt Mr. P. W. Jackson protested against the fact that Dowling had been arrested on warrant. Mr. H. F. O'Leary appeared for Mrs. Dowling, and asked for a maximum order of 21s. The complainant had been v widow for 19 years, and for the last 18 years she had had to work hard at washing and scrubbing in order to obtain a living. She managed to save up enough money to purchase a 6mall cottage, and two years ago she finished paying the full amount of h6f purchase money, £250. Then the 6on appeared on the soeno and induced his mother to make him a gift of the cottage. This she agreed to, and also permitted the sale of- the cottage on condition that the- son kept her la com* fort for the rest of her life. Her eon obtained £150, but she never saw any of this. She was placed >in a small room, and the son even begrudged the purchase of the very necessaries of life. He bought a motor-bike, deposited some £50 to his credit at the bank, ahd among his effects were several Tatfcersall's tickets, and a receipt for £13 10s for a lady's wristwatch. Counsel said that defendant had beeh callous and hard-hearted, and had acted like a scoundrel. Mr. Jackson submitted that the fetory was exaggerated. Dowling was not such a bad young fellow as had been made out. Mr. O'Leary : "Will you put him ih th© box? There are some questions I would like to a.*k." | Mr. Jackson: "No." His Worship made an order for the contribution of 10s per week. j