MOTHER ABANDONED SEVEN MONTHS’ BABY

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2314, 5 December 1925, Page 9

MOTHER ABANDONED SEVEN MONTHS’ BABY

Tender Care Ceased After Court Case ‘ASTOUNDING/ SAYS JUDGE IN GRANTING DECREE [Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Last NtgiM. "I think this is the first case that has ever come under my notice, i*. which a woman has abandoned a seven and a-half months’ old baby,® stated Mr. Justice Adams, in th» Supreme Court, when hearing a petition in which Ronald Matthew Thompson, plumber, sought a divorce from Ills wife. Petitioner stated that they had one child and that his wife left him in February, 1922. They got on well up to. that time. About the time of her leaving, there hod been trouble between them, which petitioner pwft down to his wife's bad temper. His Honour: "Were there spark* flying on both sides?" Mr. Thomas: “The /wife brought him before the Court in February, but she was advised to go back to him." Petitioner: “Yes; and after leaving the Court, when crossing Armagh) street bridge, she turned round and said ‘You can have the baby.’ I have! never seen her since.’’ “Astounding,” said His Honour. “It seems as if a mother can forget her first-born child.” The decree was granted, his Honour stating that petitioner had legal custody of the child.