WOMAN IN SLAVERY

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11875, 8 July 1924, Page 8

WOMAN IN SLAVERY

WORKING WITHOUT WAGES. YEARS WITH BROKEN LEG. ALLEGATIONS IN MELBOURNE. Tho Melbourne police recently re*, cued a woman who declared that she had been doing all kinds of work in si house for 17 years without wages. Occasionally she got a shilling to go to tho pictures, and 2s 6d every Christmas. A police-woman went to the house and ascertained that tho woman had not received a penny for her work. She cut the wood and dug the garden, in addition to her work in the house. Her uslal breakfast was bread and dripping The woman stated that sho was seldom allowed to leave the bouse Hoe bed had been a canvas structure in an outhouse, and her bedclothes a few worn-out coats and blankets. Sho wore a two-piece bathing costume as underduties, and her footwear was a pair of worn-out men’s boots. She told the police, also, that she was ordered by her ‘'employer” and his wife never to leave the house, or to speak to anyone. She was afraid to run away, she said, because of threats by tbs mar and woman that if she did they wonld have her locked up in a mental hospital.

When she was brought to the Melbourne polioe station she 6aid, “lsn’7 there a crowd of people about?” She had not been in the city for mon than 15 years. That night, accord ing to the matron of the home where she now is, she could not sleep, fer she was so unaccustomed to cleanliness and comfort. She told the matron that dt was wonderful to have a bath and feel sheets. It was so strange that She had lain awake all night. The former “employers” of the woman havq been in touch with the oolice, asking for her return, in order that they may put her into a mental hospital, hut the woman has been assured that nothing of the sort can happen to her. She was lame. Shu said that years ego she had fallen down and hurt her thigh. She nad not received medical attention,' ar.d had suffered much pain ever since. It was found that her leg had been broken and had never been set.