Father’s Thrashing of Son Horrifies S.M. Who Remands Accused

Northern Advocate, 28 February 1939, Page 8

Father’s Thrashing of Son Horrifies S.M. Who Remands Accused

[Special to “Northern Advocate” 1 AUCKLAND. This Day. \ FAIR AND FRAIL BOY OF 13, WHO WEPT CONTINUOUSLY, WAS A HUMAN EXHIBIT IN THE. TO LICE COURT THIS MORNING, WHEN HIS FATHER, NOAH GILBERT HOPKINS, A MOTOR LORRY DRIVER, APPEARED BEFORE MR C. R. ORR-WALKER, S.M., AND PLEADED GUILTY TO A CHARGE OF ASSAULTING EDWARD JAMES ARTHUR HOPKINS ON FEBRUARY 26. The magistrate remanded Hopkins in custody until Friday next for sentence, and made an order for the medical examination of the defendant. “I wouldn't trust myself in sentencing him today," said the magistrate. Sub-Inspector Fox said the boy was nearly Id. On Friday last Constable Boag, of New Lynn, was making inquiries concerning the theft of a cycle. That night two boys, one of whom was the boy assaulted, disappeared from home, but the defendant did not report their going to the constable. ‘•On Sunday,” added Mr Fox, “Hopkins found the boy in Eden Terrace and took him home. On the way home he gave him several kicks about the buttocks and legs. After he arrived home the boy took off his shirt to have ,a wash. “Defendant then got a razor strop, and. with the double end of the thick leather strap, he thrashed Iris son very severely, leaving cuts, bruises and weals on the boy’s back.

Salt Rubbed Into Wounds. “On Monday morning he told Constable Boag he had found the boy and dealt with him in his own way. He told Constable Boag that he did not want any interference by the police. The constable w.as not satisfied, and went to defendant’s house, where he found the boy in bed and in the condition I have described. “In addition to giving this boy the thrashing,” continued Mr Fox, “the defendant got his other boy to get some salt, and this the defendant rubbed on the wounds, adding to the already severe pain. Later he got the other boy to wash the salt off. It was a very brutal kind of assault. Hopkins explained that he was told by a woman that boys in the Borstal were thrashed every day and salt rubbed into the cuts. But. of course, such a thing is nothing else but nonsense.” Magistrate Shudders.

Constable Boag gently led the frightened, crying boy up to the Magistrate’s bench, lifting his shirt in order that Mr Orr-Walker might see the boy’s back. The magistrate shuddered. “Are the buttocks the same as his back,” he asked the constable.

“They are, sir,” said Constable Boag. “I’m wondering as to his mentality,” said the magistrate, who then asked Hopkins if there was anything he would like to add to the statement he had given to the police. Hopkins: Yes, I thought the authorities were going to do it for me. I did it to show that I was keeping my boys under control. I don’t want my boys to be taken away from me. If its going to make my boys any better. you can give me as many years in gaol as you like, provided it makes them see the light in front of them. I don’t want them to get into gaol. I would sooner go to my grave than see them in prison.

Mr Semple's Northland Memories

[Special to “Northern Advocate ”] PUKEKOHE, This Day. Speaking at Pukekohe yesterday, the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, said: “We have (a tremendous job in the North of Auckland. We have just been through counties where there are 900 oneway bridges in a deplorable state; they just stand up from force of habit. “How people get over them Beats me, and the task of replacing them with good two-way bridges 'and widening the roads has to be faced. We have to make roads suitable for highpowered cars.”