COUPLE IN COURT

Southland Times, Issue 20664, 20 April 1929, Page 8

COUPLE IN COURT

IDLE AND DISORDERLY’ CHARGE. A young man, Henry Evans, aged 21, and. a middle-aged married woman, Emily Smith, appeared in the Police Court yesterday afternoon before Mr G. F. Watson, Justice of the Peace, charged with being deemed idle and disorderly persons, in that they had insufficient lawful means of support. ■ Senior-Sergeant Fox said that the accused had been arrested by Sergeant, Abel and Constable Beadle about 2 p.m. in an old house near Roope’s brewery. They had been living there for about a fortnight without furniture or bedding. The female accused was a married woman living apart from her husband, and five of her children had been placed in the care of the State. One child had been living with her, and it had been handed over to the Child Welfare Officer. The male accused had been occupying the same room as the woman with some straw and a blanket for a bed, and two other young men had been sleeping in another room under similar conditions. The woman had said that she was not prepared to return to her husband and as the matron of Victoria Home was willing to take her there the senior-sergeant asked that she be remanded for a week on condition that she went to the home. As regards the male accused a remand for a week was also advisable. A good clean up and some good food would be in his own interests. They had no money, and as there were two or three cases of this kind in Invercargill the police wished to clean them up.

The accused were remanded until next Wednesday. The female accused at first objected to going to the Victoria Home, but finally agreed to “give it a trial.”