The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1911. THE PITY OF IT!

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 19, 17 July 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1911. THE PITY OF IT!

A young woman lately left her infant, which was not born in wedlock, on the steps of one of the noblest charitable institutions in the capital city. She was not an "abandoned" woman, because

"abandoned" women do not have babies. She was a motherly woman to the same extent as she would have been if she had been married. She watched her baby until she was assured that the kindliest woman in - Wellington had it under her care. She committed a crime. In the subsequent court proceedings the man who was the father of that baby had no place. Society, which appears to develop additional obliquity and mental vision as the years roll on, doesn't worry about the man, and in these cases (to the everlasting shame of men) the man rarely cares either • about the woman or the baby. The woriian in this case stated that the father of the baby "would not help." The court was not concerned about this. It merely knew the woman, as usual, should bear the shame. There is no evidence in the majority of these cases that these unfortunate girls are "bad." but society has rigidly decided that the. Anus shall always fall on the woman. Therefore for an act to which the man is the chief sinner the woman goes to gaol and the man goes on his way. It is a travesty of justice that the mother of any illegitimate' child should be solely charged. It is a public wickedness that the State should connive at' the destruction -of women by pillorying them as if they were solely responsible' for an illegal act.- It requires little imagination to conceive the mental horror which an unmarried woman undergoes, knowing as she does that the fact that she is a mother condemns her, turns every hand against her, and deprives her in many eases of gaining a livelihood. Woman affect horror of such a one. unctuous persons' regard the sinner with malevolence, and the courts punish the weaker of two sinners. In New Zealand (and elsewhere) there is a good <leal nf unhealthy hysteria. The good folk who wouldn't stir a finger to help this sinful woman, raved in self-advertising protest against the hanging of a murderer. Let Kaka live and let the sinful woman die a living death! Our legislators have lately devised many means for purging | the people of evil, but there is as yet no legislation or sign of it wliich will make it impossible to imprison the mother'of an illegitimate child unless the father is imprisoned too. We know, and everybody knows, that there is a class of professional seducers whose glory is the "fall' of women. Nothing is done to the men—the women always take the blame. As for the magistrates, tliev are powerless; the public doesn't care, and very frequently rather admires the "gay' dog" for his gaiety. No cure can ever bo prescribed to prevent these deplorable happenings, but if the public which cries out for the life of a murderer and the release of a criminal monomaniac, can have any effect on the Legis--1 laturc it should demand that in these cases the man shall appear with the woman and be punished equally with her. The treatment of these mothers is utterly and brutally savage.

"Til'T-OIlER!" Rome day soon the meat-hawker will hawk no more, the driver will not fondle your joint fourteen or fifteen times before you get it, a ml a dozen housewives will not poke the foroijiiarter you buy before it arrives at your baek door. In Palmerston North the (lesliers have decided that meat-hawking will cease, and the indecent, unhygienic and dirty method now commonly employed in most towns shall disappear. In the matter of meat the people are not very particular. In the cities tons of meat are hurled into huge uncovered carts, driven through dirty streets, heaved into butchers' shops, chucked into hawkers' carts, and thrown about like bags of sand. Meat is very susceptible to contamination. It is a moot question, even, whether it should be exposed in open shops where any filth may blow on it. If a customer is worth serving he (or

she) is worth treating decently. To do away with the man who yells for 300 yards before he gets to your house-door would be a boon. To receive a cleanly and courteous person without a perspiring horse and armed with a note-book and pencil would be much nicer. To order to-morrow's supply and get it delivered carefully wrapped' and ' full weight, would cheer meat eaters up a lot. Even if every butcher in Taranakl is a model of cleanliness, civility and full-weight (his meat, not himself), it is meekly suggested that he fall in with the "order to-day and delivery to-mor-row" idea. we get more civilised we shall be more particular about our foodstuffs, and the way they arc handled. At present the average buyer is very grateful to be allowed to purchase what is given him.