THE WINTON CHILD MURDERS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXI, Issue 158, 28 June 1895, Page 2

THE WINTON CHILD MURDERS.

♦ In his summing up m the Dean child murdes case, heard at Invercargill, dealing with the question of motive, the judge made the following remarks : — " Let us pause a moment to look at the transaction. The child is 11 months old, and is said to be taken over and adopted m consideration of £10 being paid to the person adopting. Why should one person adopt the child of another ? It seems to be that only two answers can be reasonably given to such a question*Tire firstnvas tnat it was a pecuniary transaction, and done m the way of business. The second is that the person desirous of adopting the child is herself childless, and from the natural love of offspring which a woman has is prepared, out of love, to take and nurture somebody else's child, as she has none of her own. Could this latter have been the motive of accused m the present case ? If it was not, then what sort of a business transaction was entered into ? If the mother or connections of an illegitimate child chose to get somebody else to adopt it, and pay the person a sufficient sum for maintaining it, the transaction on the part of the person adopting is a perfectly intelligible one, although she may have plenty of children of her own. But if the sum is inadequate, what can be said ? Can it be said that apart from any consideration of affection the sum of £10 is an adequate sum for which a person would undertake to rear-up and maintain a child of 11 or 12 months old until it gets to a sufficient age to be of use and earn money for itself. If, therefore, there was no question of natural affection m the case, and if £10 is a wholly inadequate consideration for maintaining a child from the age of 12 months till it might earn money for itself, what possible motive could be suggested for a woman m poor circumstances taking over a child and undertaking to rear and maintain it from that early age? Does not even that suggest that there was some improper motive beyond if no reasonable motive could be assigned ?"