MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR

Evening Star, Issue 20089, 1 February 1929, Page 6

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR

HOUSE ON FIRE CHILD STRAPPED IN CHAIR A badly-burned child, aged three and a-hnlf years, strapped to a chair and with many bruises, in addition to burns; another child about five years of age, whose back was black and blue, the sign of a very severe thrashing; and three other children, a fourteen-year-old girl, and a woman, apparently between fifty and sixty years of age—all in a bouse, which was burning in several places. These were the essential features in what provided a sensation for the people of Reefton recently, and a mystery which the police are still trying to solve (says the Greymouth correspondent of the' ‘Lyttelton Times'). When Acting-sergeant J. Rodgers, of Brunner-, who is in charge ol the Reefton Police Station while Sergeant H. Fryer is on holiday, called at the residence of a woman in Boundary street, Reefton, about I o’clock on the afternoon of January 19, ho discovered that a mattress _ was on fire, also a sofa, and some children's clothing in a cliest of drawers was also burning. The fires were quickly extinguished by the acting-sergeant and Constable Hill.

The woman, when questioned, declared that the three-and-a-half-yoar-old child had started the fires. The boy was strapped to an ordinary chair and was crying bitterly. The police left shortly after 4 o’clock, and everything then seemed safe. About 10 o’clock the same night tho police received an “ S.O.S. ” call, and rushed back to the house. The wallpaper in one of the bedrooms was blazing, and the remains of another outbreak were found in tho pantry. Tho child was released from tho chair, and tho acting-sergeant then discovered that the boy had been badly burnt about the lower part of the body, almost as though tho child had been sitting on a fire. Dr Conlon was sent for, and, after giviny the boy emergency treatment, ordered his removal to tile Reefton Hospital. Tho woman stated that she did not know tho child had been burned. Under the circumstances Acting-sergeant Rodgers deemed it advisable to remove the other four children from the house, and they also were admitted to hospital. On examination there it was found that another boy, about fire years of age, was badly bruised, and his back was practically all black and blue, evidently tho result of a severe thrashing. The ages of the children range from seven months to six years. The woman had, it is stated, been in the habit of hoarding other people's children. Three of tho five in the house on Saturday, including tho two hoys who were burned and bruised, respectively, are tho children of a. Greymouth married couple. It B understood that be woman's husband resides in England. Sho employs a fonrtecn-ycur-old Reefton girl as domestic. Tho affair retains many mysterious features, and tho police investigation is being continued. A further statement to the effect that the child welfare officer was inquiring into the case of tho children who were hoarded by the vVoiuan in the case appears in the ‘ Grey River Argus ’ on Friday last, which also mentioned that the hoys were still in tho hospital, and the girls had been hoarded out to other residents. Ho far, however, untiling definite had been done in the matter.