A DESTITUTE FAMILY.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13169, 27 July 1911, Page 4

A DESTITUTE FAMILY.

1 PITIFUL COURT SCENE.

(Special to "The Colonist.")

Chrlstchurch, July 26; Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M.; has many gorry plights to witness from tha Magisterial B<>nch, but il 'caSe1 which came beioi'e him this afternport^, was one of tfie most.shpbking and pitiable that lias Been dealt with iii the .Icjcal Court. Seven '^ittlo girls and " two boys were charged at the Juvenile Court with being' not under proper control, and dwelling with a vagrant. The ages of the children were 14, 12, 11, 8, 6 (twins), 3, and 2 (twins) years of age. The father and mother, a povorty stricken pair, appeared in Court, and the mother had an infant at her breast. The children wore bare footed and ill clad, and most of them shivered} and cried in front of the lire.

Sub-Inspector McGrath said that the surroundings in which the children lived were deplorable. Mr Bishop said that the father bad a bad record. He had boctl convicted of Vagrancy) theft, wilful damage, obscene language, and frequent breaches of prohibition orders, Ulie-fathel1 said that he wan a feaeual worker and earned about iSs a w§@k>

Mr Bishop: What roligioli are y6u ? "I don lt know," was_ the answer; In reply to the Magistrate the woman said that fehe belonged to the faith of the' Church of England.

■ The father said that he,had \,o go out looking for casual work, aild lie had not been convicted of any serious offence since the children were born.

Mr Bishop: V.our record is certainly against you:" , , . '. . ■. The father replied that he hadglvSri the best of his life to the country,'and liad given his blood in his youngei days, and the country ought to help him more.

The Magistrate said that it was a perfectly awful state of things that a -man should bfcing a large family into the world and bo unable to keep them. It would cost the country nearly £200 a year to keep such a tribe. He had seen the conditions under which the family lived; having visited the house witli. the Mayor.. Tile, woman iva3 decent and hard working, but was simply over hurdened by a, weight of trouble of which she should be relieved. The state of affairs-he had witnessed was simply awful.

The father interjected that if the country would help him he could keep the children.

Mr Bishop said that when he was with the Mayor t\\e scenes he had witnessed were enough to break . one's heart. There was no comfort, no decency, and 1)0 aplpea i i';ittee' .of a ho'iite about the place. The bedding was simply a heap of filthy rags.. Sub-inspector McGrath said, that Sergeant Jackson.had Said that tH3 place was worse still now. . ,

The woman at this stage, said she would like to keep tho twins, and a child next to them, in addition to the baby. ' . Sub-inspector McGrath said ihat thero had been a lot,of begging going on, and the children had been in it.

Addressing the mother, Mr Bishop said that she surely did. not wish ,tjio children to grow tiji with1 retards llkfl that of their father. There.was no room for them in the Christchur'ch Receiving Home, and they would be committed to the Caversham Industrial School, to be brought up in ijhe Church of England faith. It would, he added, be a perfectly shocking example for him not to make ah order against the father for maintenance, and ho would make'an order for 2s a week in respect wf each child.

The father said that he was 60 years old. - Mr Bishdp: And you have a child five months old. The nojice record shows that you were born in 1857, and that is probably correct. The children wore taken away in the police van weeping copiously. Speaking to a reporter the Rev F. Rule, -Presbyterian Social Service agent, said that the case was the worst that had come under his experience.