ASTOUNDING STORY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 6 May 1925, Page 9

ASTOUNDING STORY.

FATHER’S ALLEGED CRUELTY. BABY DAUGHTER’S DEATH. An astounding story of the alleged callous conduct ot' a father towards his dying child was told at an inquest held at Oatlaiuis, Tasmania, oil the death of Hazel Gladys Johnson, aged ten months, the daughter of Montrose and Ella Elizabeth Johnson, of Baden. The mother, in evidence, said that when the child became ill on April 11 she spoke to her husband several times about it, but he took no notice. When she told him the baby would have to. go to a. doctor he told her to wait, and said that if she left the house without his authority she would have to. do the best she could. She took the child to Oatlaiuis, walking part of the way, and consulted Dr Moorehead, hut the infant died early the next morning. When she returned home a. dav later her husband asked: “Where is the kid,” and she told him it was lying dead at Garlands. He then .said: “There is the. door, get- out, and never come near the place again,” She left the house and had not returned since. When a doctor once ordered one of her boys medicine her husband refused to get it. Dr. Mooreland told the coroner that if the child had been taken to him she would have lived. The mother told him that the father had said that if the child died there world be peace in the bouse. The Lather had been subpoenaed to attend the inquest, but did not appear, and was lined £2 for non-attendance. The inquest was adjourned in orclei' to obtain his evidence.