A PITIFUL CASE.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17764, 11 December 1929, Page 5

A PITIFUL CASE.

"1 — STARVING WjIFE AND FAMILY.

DISCOVERY AT LOWER HUTT.

THE EXTREME OF MISERY.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 11. “It the most shocking case I have

-ever come in contact with in all my

•thirty years of experience, and I have .•useen 'a few had ones,” said Inspector Fletcher. “Yes,” remarked the Borough engineer, “it’s damnable that such a thing should happen in a country

rsuch as this. Just think of a man ■being gaoled for three months be-

cause he committed a crime to pro--Vide food for these bonny children.’ Such were the comments of the of-

ficers of the Lower Hutt Borough 1 -Council on entering a house in Rand- “ Wick yesterday afternoon. A tour of - -the premises showed a series of absolutely bare rooms, except for the "kitchen, where there was a table some

Sft by 2ft, and a pot. There was not so much as a box to sit upon. It ■is the home of a mother and nine children, the eldest being twelve, a girl, who was tending her mother who,

■only last .Sunday, gave birth to a

•child with 'never a soul in the wprld 1 welcome it except the woman her--self and the other children. There -was not a bed among them all, not a -plate, a dish, nor as much as a knife

-or fork.” The father is a T;B. case, said to be not mentally strong, who, after -jnnoths out of employment, was six weeks ago convicted for false pre--tences and sentenced to'three months’ "imprisonment. The woman struggled -on, too proud to let her case be 'known, and bit by bit everything in "the home went to provide food. . Some weeks ago attention was -drawn to the case, and Inspector Fletcher went to the house but the i woman was too proud to let him in. : She assured him she was all right. "However, in dire necessity, she .made •application for the charitable aid :xiecessary, and assistance to the extent of £l/19/,2 per week was given, ‘3but this was quite insufficient to make Up the leeway and provide for the ■expectant mother and eight children Hiving in the bare .house. Yesterday morning the true state •of affairs became known, and was met "by houses being ransacked, and bed, 'bedding and food, etc., being provided. '>

One woman working in an office ;got a day off, and, armed with a

•-scrubbing ..brush, soap and disinfec_tant, went round, cleaned and sweetened up the whole house, and bathed -and tidied up the children. - Naturally, they think her just ’Christmas. Still, there is the problem of the future. At the last sit'•ting of the Lower Hutt Magistrate’s -Court the State Advances Office ob- • -tained an order for possession of the ''premises because the instalments had mot been paid. -'"i Through all the days of the --vyoman’s trouble the house had been -ujhlighted because the Power Board JiSd cut off the light supply, the accounts being; overdue. It will be ten weeks before the -father is free to work, even if he van get it. f ,