ASTOUNDING STORY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 4 May 1925, Page 11

ASTOUNDING STORY.

FATHER’S ALLEGED CRUELTY. BABY DAUGHTER’S DEATH. HOBART April 22. An. astounding story of the alleged callous conduct of a father towards his dying child was told at an inquest, held at Oatlands, on 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 Oatlands, walking part of the way, and consulted Dr. Moorehead, but the infant died early the next morning. When she returned home, a day later, her husband asked, “Where is the kid,” and she told him it was as lying dead at Oatlands. 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. Moorehead told the Coroner that if the child had been taken to him earlier she would have lived. The mother told him that the father had said that if the child died there would be peace iu the house. The father had been subpoenaed to attend the inquest, but did not appear, and was fined £2 for non-attendance.

The inquest was adjourned in order to obtain his evidence.