KEEPING OF CHILD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22256, 2 November 1935, Page 16

KEEPING OF CHILD

UNLICENSED FOSTER-PARENT YOUNG WOMAN PROSECUTED [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION*] WELLINGTON, Friday A young woman, Edith May Simmonds, pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court to-day to being an unlicensed foster-parent in that sho had custody of a child for more than seven consecutive days. On her behalf it was stated that she did not know that keeping a child for another woman out of kindness was a contravention of the Act. Sho was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called within six months. The child welfare officer said the department was anxious to eradicate unlicensed homes. "Tho view the Court takes of it," said tho magistrate, "and the sooner it is widely known the better, it is in tho interests of children themselves that this particular section of the Act should bo strictly enforced. Unfortunately in the history of the Dominion we have had several most serious cases in connection with infants, and it is with the object of averting anything in future like babyfarming that tho Education Department is taking action in this case. Ono has only to look at t]ie pehalty provided —a fine of £SO or six months' imprisonment—to see the attitude of the Legislature on tho matter. They view it, as it is rightly viewed, as a very serious offence. In this case there does not seem to have been any attempt at baby-farming—nothing more, indeed, than good-hearted consideration for the child and its mother —but still, there is a breach of the law and it must bo clearly understood that the department will not tolerate any such breach in future."