FAMILY OF THIRTY

Patea Mail, Volume LII, 6 March 1931, Page 3

FAMILY OF THIRTY

LABOURERTWO -MARIO ACES. UFE OF TWO COTTACEF. “If every body got on as well as we do nobody would ever quarrel/” recently said Mrs. Nelms, the second wife of Mr. Henry Nelms, of TowerKey, Buckinghamshire. Air. Nelms has had twelve children il>y his first wife and eighteen by his second. Seven of the children are. married, and sixteen are living at home with their parents. Two of the three boys who served in the war were killed. One child died at birth, leaving 27 still alive. I’he eldest son is now in India. There were in all seventeen girls and thirteen boys. The family consumes Sib of margarine, 161 b sugar. 40 large loaves, and three big joints of meat every week. Three large bars of soa.p are used weekly for washing purposes. Mr, and Mrs. Nelms ami family live in (wo cottages containing seven beds for the .grown-ups and cots for the younger children. There are six children still at school, and three babies at home, (he youngest of whom is IS months. Air. Nelms, who is a labourer, was under 2.1 years of age when he was first married, Since then he has been a chimney sweep and a farm labourer: in fact, he has tried his hand at most trades. He is now 65 years of ago. Ho has only recently left hospital. Mrs. Nelms is 46. Three of the boys who arc living at home help towards the family exchequer. One of the babies is partly crippled. The children, apart from this, all look extremely healthy.