BABIES DONE AWAY WITH

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3997, 30 July 1913, Page 5

BABIES DONE AWAY WITH

MATERNITY BONUS SCANDALS. [OTTtTBD PBEBS ASSOCIATION—COPT EIGHT! MELBOURNE, July 29. The trial of two nurses named Hannah Janet Hurrell and Clarice Donaldson and Dr. Edward George Erson on a charge of conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth with fictitious claims under the Maternity Allowance Act, has concluded. Mr. Justice Hood, in summing up, said that the birth certificates .signed bv the nurses overflowed with false names. They signed themselves over and over again as mothers. On,e witness had said that an illegitimate child had been disposed o’f by Donaldson for thirty pounds. If the statements made regarding such transactions were anything .like true, this hospital was simply a den of murqer. If children were not absolutely done to death possibly they were allowed to starve away. _ Dr. Erson was in an unfortunate position. Dr. Erson had signed over forty certificates, but had attended only twenty-six cases, the explanation being that he signed certificates in blank through carelessness. The nurses were found guilty and were each sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, and fined £IOO. * Dr. Erson was acquitted.