INHUMAN TREATMENT OF A GIRL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 631, 20 February 1879, Page 2

INHUMAN TREATMENT OF A GIRL.

An extraordinary case of neglect was reported to the police last Sunday (says a Christchurch paper). A man named M'Grath, a well-to T do contractor, .living, at Kingslands, . employed : " liis 'daughter/ aged 14, to herd cows' on the Native Reserve near the Esfcupry. Up till last Thursday she lived in a tent .near, the Reserve, but it was blown away by the strong winds. . Afterwards she slept under a flax bush. Food was taken to her at intervals by other . members of the family. When found she waßina fearful condition lying on a sack with some stuffing. in, it, and a. shred of the torn tent for a covering. She was dirty, hungry, and neglected. Sho is in the hands of the authorities. WHAT FOLLOWED. From another source we read that the wretched girl's father was put into the witness box. He prevaricated a good deal, and attempted to make out that when a policeman roused him out of bed at a quarter past 11 at night he was going down to see after his ohild. The night was bitterly cold, and it was raining hard— in fact the girl would probably have been killed had she not been rescued by the police. Eventually the heartless old scoundrel broke down, and pleaded that if let off he would- not do ic again. The child was almost starved, and had not taken off her clothes for fourteen days. She had been in the same lonely place since December 16, and had been obliged on several occasions to beg for food from the neighbors. At the conclusion of the case Mr. Mellish said the girl would' j be sent to the Industrial School for two years, to be brought up in the Roman Catholic religion. "Take her away, and let the father remain." To the fathers "I won't let you go without telling you what I think of your conducti You ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. You have been bringing your child up as a perfect little savage^-as worse than a savage, and what can you expect your children to come to when you treat them in such a manner 1 It was but little wonder your son went to the bad. A grosser pieoe of barbarity and neglect I have never heard of ; and now, instead of making anything out of your child I will take care that you have to pay for her support for the next two years, at any rate. You may go."