CHILD ABANDONMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 40

CHILD ABANDONMENT.

. THE CASE -IN COURT.. AUCKLAND, Saturday. At the Police Court this morning/ before Messrs J. Gordon and H. M. Sheppard, Justices of the Peace, the young girl named Elizabeth Hill was charged, on remand, with abandoning her female infant under the age of two years. ;.vir Brookfield appeared for the defence, and the police asked for a remand, but Mr Brookfield objecting, the Bench decided to hear some of the evidence before deciding. Detective Herbert said tnat a week ago he had arrested the accusec*. at Remuera on the present charge. _ She thou said she had been confined in Napier, and had arrived at Onehunga On the 7th of April with her child, and was mcc at the boat by the father of the child in the evening. The father’s name, she said, was. John Tait, who was an employee u. the Newmarket Railway shops. Tait had a horse and trap in waiting, and drove her to Kidd's place, at Ellersiie. He left her there, and took the child away in t.ie trap, saying he had arranged vrtu a woman, who was going to adopt it. In order to inquire into this story, the police had obtained a remand, with a view to arresting Tait, He had not yet been found, however. The infant was found on a-ve-randah of The Gables, at Parnell, at 10.50 on the night that the mother and her child had arrived from Napier, that was, supposing the girl’s statement to be true. „ . , , . To Mr Brookfield : Tait had neon working at the railway shops up to about the 23rd or 24th of May. Mr Brookfield: Is it not a fact that he has left the colony ? Detective Herbert: I can t swear helms left. Did the girl, asked Mr Brookneld, answer your questions freely and readily 1' Detective Herbert: Yes ; wiien I asked her questions she answered, Mr Brookfield: So far as you have ascertain eel everything she lias told you armears to be correct ? Detective Herbert: I haven t found anything to be a lie. . Chief-Detective Grace then applied tor a remand in order to bring witnesses from Hawke's Bay to prove the connec mil between the accused and the abandoned in-

fant. , . ~ , Mr Brookfield objected, tim.witnesses in Hawke’s Bay could omv testify to the fact of accused’s confinement, which was already admitted by the

accused. , ~ . Mr Gordon: There must be something behind all this which the police do net wish to disclose at present; possiLuy in the interests of justice so-called. it would be desirable, he thought, to allow the remand. Mr Brookfield asked wlmt witnesses m Napier could know about an infant being abandoned in Auckland? ~ . Detective Grace pointed out mat the news of tlie child’s being abandoned was published in both local newspapers at the time with a full description of the c O'A)ing; yet the accused had never applied to the police for it. Mr.- Brookfield: I will undertake that the girl will go with the police now and say whether the child found on tne verandah is hers or not. I could not make a fairer offer. , Detective Grace: We uo not xequiie her to do that. . , , Mr Brookfield : Then you have no ngut to ask for a remand. Detective Grace: We want_ to vrove she brought the infant from Napier and abandoned it here. Suppose she identified the child that would not relieve her of the responsibility of abandonment, Mr Gordon, for the Bench, said that to satisfy the Court, the police muse move that the child abandoned was a child born of the accused. . Detective Grace : The gist of our case is that this is her child, and that she abandoned it. After further argument, Detective Grace said there was another person implicated. , ... Mr Brookfield: Ah, now we mve it, and this charge is kept hanging over the girl’s,head until you get that oiner person. I am willing to state_ our defence. It is this: That the girl had a child, that Tait was its father, and tnat Tait took the child away, ostensibly for the purpose of boarding it out, and ueanuoned it and would not tell her where it was. The Bench decided to grant a. remand till Monday, and Mr Brookfield stated that if the child was not produced then he would oppose any further rema..a.