A CASH FOR CHARITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3364, 16 November 1872, Page 3

A CASH FOR CHARITY.

Two children, nfimed J);»vid Dacnj ko*fj and William Oilchriat Kojw, and aged nine months and three yearn rcKpeetivcly, were brought before the May or1 h Court an neglected children, yesterday, under the following eirctnmtiinox'R :-• -The mother of the children— each of whom had a different father - was an unmarried woman in «ervice at Oamaru, nnd had been pay ng 15s a week for thi-ir mjiinl-onunre. Siic i-aid »he li.'id not allowed the payments to f;ill into arrears, and that it took all her w.-i^i.-k to keep the children. Ah the woman with whom they were living refused to take cure of them any longer, the mother ame tv Dnncdin, and made an application to have them admitted into the JJenevulcnt Institution, but the request wan refused. She came to the Police Station at 11..'50 on the previoiiß night, saying that Hhe had no place for heraelf or her children to Bleep ; that she had been wandering about the street the whole of the evening, and did not know what to do, the Benevolent Inßtitution having declined to grant her any aHHiKt■ance ; and that the children, who then were crying, had had nothing to eat. The police got the mother and children food and lodging for the night, and directed her to come i;ext morning to Court, and bring the case under the notice of the Bench. Ah she wanted the children fient to the Industrial School, the matter took the form it did. The father of the elder child had, it appeared, exonerated himself from being .sued for its maintenance by having paid fche mother a lump sum of money, and hliu had no certain knowledge of the whereabouts of the father of the younger one, but believed him to lie at work on the railway line near Tokomairiro. Mr Bathgato appeared to oppose the children being sent to the Industrial School.

Mr Ward, who sat on the Bench, thought tho easy of the children did not come within the meaning of the Acfc, and dismissed them. The vesulfc, he remarked, of tlii.'j woman's lnisconducfc. v/.'is that these two unfortunate children were thrown on tho public charity. His ten years' experience in Dunedin was that a shelter for females, which would be the means of preventing many from going on the streets, wa.s necessary, and that ultimately it would cost the public less to have such an institution than to be without it. He also pu frosted that a part of the present Immigration Barracks about to be vacated would be duitable for the purpose. He hoped the Benevolent Institution would take charge of the children, who should not be punished for the improprieties or irregularities of the mother. The publication of the case might lead to Home assistance being given. Mr Bathgalo hoped the publication of the circumstances would awaken the philanthropic to a nen.se of their duty. Sub- Inspector Mallard afterwards waited on Mr Hickson, the Secretary of the Benevolent liwiitution, who declined to receive the children. We arc glad to learn from the report of the proceedings of the Directors of the Caledonian Society that that body ban - taken the initiative in adopting the suggestion of Mr Bathgate, by voting the sum of £2 towards the relief of the two children.