NEGLECTED CHILDREN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15821, 21 July 1913, Page 6

NEGLECTED CHILDREN

A SORDID STORY. PATHETIC SCENE AT THE COURT. (FbOK Ons SPMML ComtrsFONrtfXT.l INVERCARGILL, July 20. A more pitiable 6tory of poverty, hunger, and dirt could not'be imagined than the description of a destitute family which was unfolded by the police at the court on Saturday morning.' Sitting on a form was a weeping mother attired in black and holding in- her arms a,bareheaded smiling batty wrapped in a heavy red blanket, iieated beside her were three children. At intervals the mother burst into a loud wail and threw her head back as if gasping for breath, while a court assistant endeavoured io relieve the woman's apparent suffering with a glass of water. The children were brought before the _ magistrate (llr'G, Cruickshank) as having been neglected. Sergeant Simpson said the parents had been in Invercargill for two years, and the condition of the children had been reported to the police. On several occasions it had been found necessary to obtain assistance from the Charitable Aid Board. They had lived in several houses, some oT which had not a stick of furni-

Sergeant Bingham 6aid he had been asked on several occasions to visit the family, first when they lived in Kirkwood lane. During the last few weeks they had been practically homeless. The mother took a small house in Kelvin street. When witness visited the house on Saturday morning tho only furniture was a few wooden chairs and a broken bedstead with a few blankets. The father was not there. There was only a loaf- of bread, a piece of cheese, and a little butter in the way of' food.

Mr Pryde (secretary of the Charitable Aid Board) said he interviewed the lather a« to the advisability of sending the children to the home, but the latter said he could look after his own children. Later he again visited the house, and saw two children almost naked out in the snow. They were eating crusts of bread that had been softened under a water tap.

The father of the children said ho was working for the Drainage Board, and received 9s a day at present. He was living with his wife, He bad no tabic, and took his meals from a chair.

His Worship: What are you prepared to pay' if I send the children to the home? The .Mother: Pay £1 a week and don't let the public pay 'for them. Mr Pryde: As long as he keeps the payment'up it will'be all right. The magistrate mari« an order for the father to pay £1 a week. After this decision the mother, clingin;; desperately to her baby, said: "Dad, you need not come with me; I am going away on my own." The scene was distressing when the charitable authorities came forward to take charge of the children. At first the mother held fast to the little one, but her arms were soparaled by a constable and she yielded. TRen, throwing her arms in the air, die lay prostrate, apparently in a f airit.