A BROKEN WOMAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 21 January 1926, Page 7

A BROKEN WOMAN

FALL THROUGH DRINK business i;riM;i) and child TAKEN AWAY xliy Tolocraph.— Special to Alai!.; (IiEISTCHUECH. This Day. With a cm* time prosperous business ruined and her only child, taken trom her by the State. Louisa Beale. aged 2S, appeared to lie a broken woman when she appeared at the Magistrates Court yesterday to answer twelve (barges wliieh were laid against her ns a result of a drinking ho.tt wliieh begun at the end of last year. She pleaded guilty to five charges of being on licensed premises during the curmiiey of a prohibition order, three el larger, of sending her daughter, a person under tlie age of 21. to procure liquor, and one of being found drunk. In pleading guilty accused expressed her willingness to undergo special treatment to euro her alcoholism. Sub-Inspector Mathew said Airs Beale and her eight-year-old daughter stayed at the Excelsior Hotel from December 29 till January 2. Mrs Beale stayed iti bed all that time drinking, and sent her daughter to the Wellington Hotel to procure gin. She registered at the hotel under a lift it ions name. On January 121li she went to Tattersall s Hotel, where she again used a fictitious name. Air Batchelor, who appeared for the accused, said this was the third time site had been before the court. None of her previous offences were criminal and all laid been connected with drinking. It was only during the last three months that liquor had taken such a. hold of her. She was a. keen, hard working woman and had kept a ]>’.e shop in the city for some time. She began baking at 4 a.rn. stud did not go to bed till late sit night. Sim had ruined an exceptionally .good business through her drinking, and her child bad been taken from her by the authorities. The real criminals in the ease were the people who brought liquor into the shop. Mrs Beale was prepared to undergo special treatment for her alcholism and she was also prepared to pay for her child in a home.