CHILD MURDER.

NZ Truth, Issue 170, 19 September 1908, Page 6

CHILD MURDER.

The Unwanted Illegitimate.

/ Piety /and purity exact an appaJling Ueath levy frpin sthe infant life of Christchurch, where the horror ,of what religious people wopld say has driven many a girl to do away with the living token of her "shame." Only reaaitly a dead infant was found m the Park and was given over to the worms after, an abortive .inquest.- On. Saturday the decomposed of another child' was found ■on-"-' a bank of the Avon at Burwood, Ayitti a piece of string around its neck, to "which had probably been attached a heayv -weight. ■The string had apparently been .severed, and the body was washed uc by the action of the tide. Dr. Irvin^ said : . it iynas the body ,of a newly-born. fullyMevelbped male child, but , owing to its J* decomposed state it, was impossible to. say if it had ever lived. The remains were naked when/ fovtod. Coroner Bishop commented upon the difficulty experienced dv the police m getting infor.mation respecting cases of this kind. His Worship surmised that ■-->""■ ! THE CHILD WAS PROBABLY ILLE-/ [„-:. GITIptfATE, . ' j and the people whom it iwlonged ; put it m the river ' because they didn't want i to' have anything to do with it. Under the ' Cordner's direction the jury returned an open verdict to the e Sect that there \yas no evidence to show how the child gbjfi into>; the 'river. In a young country run, -by parsons v and women, and with a rapidly^ decreasing birthrate, we cannot afford ,'to make these numeroas sacrifices to Mother Grundy. f It wouli pay the State:, to establish ' Receiving Homes on the 'Continental principle, which • permits the frantic mother of an illeeitimate child to ring a. bell, place Ifcer offspring m a reVoJFing receptacle, and depart unseen. This is surely betted than child murder and pollution of the Avon. ' ,