Starvation of Children.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 604, 26 July 1890, Page 6

Starvation of Children.

Last week it was reported from Christchurch that a little girl had died under circumstances of such extreme destitution that it was thought want of proper nourishment bad caused her death. That was a case of deplorable destitution— the mother, a widow, being almost friendless, and unable to support the child. There are, however, frequent cases in which unnatural parents cruelly neglect their offspring, and sometimes actually starve them to death. A correspondent sends the following particulars of cruelty as practised by residents of a street near Karangahape Boad : — Although these people are well-to-do, and professing Christians, they starve their children to such an extent, that they have been seen, upon return from school, to steal a slice of bread and butter, taking a thin shaving of butter from the bottom of the pat, so that their mother might not miss it, and to devour the same ravenously. They ■ pay their children a halfpenny each for all the neighbours' eggs they can steal ; they also make their children entice the neighbours' fowls into their place and fatten them and kill them. The children are now such poor, miserable specimens, that one of them, on drinking a cup of ordinary strong tea at a friend's house, immediately threw it up, and ruined a valuable Brussels carpet. Had she been properly nourished from infancy, it would have had no effect upon her. These devils in human form may be seen going to church every Sunday with Bibles nearly as big as themselves. The male devil (for such he must be) may be seen daily at a well-known restaurant, stuffing away at one meal enough to last an ordi-nary-sized man a week. An English paper the other day drew a vivid contrast between a case of child-murder, in which a distracted girl, for drowning her offspring, was sentenced to death, while a brutal father and mother who had murdered their child by months of slow starvation, escaped with a few months' imprisonment. There is really some need for an alteration in the law, or more properly in public sentiment, that unnatural parents might be more severely dealt with when they ruin or impair the health of their offspring by brutal maltreatment or neglect. Society and the law take more care of dogs and horses than of children ; the lattei seem to be looked upon as drugs in the market, and too often their natural protectors are those who use them the worst. If theparenta indicated by our correspondent do not mend their ways after this warning, it is to be hoped they will be prosecuted criminally,

Parliament is dragging terribly. Justice withput mercy— The new paper on the landgrabbers. The Wellington Press calls the B.N.Z. ' a somewhat shady old financial rep !' Great bobbery at Tonga. Butcher Baker and Candlestick Maker all at loggerheads. Poultry, show at the Agriculrural Hall on Friday and Saturday, 25th and 26th ins,t. Auckland ia shortly to receive a visnt from the American corvette Mohican. Now then, girls. The working man who embezzles? money is advised to poison himself ; the defaulter of position is helped off to Fiji ; both reach a hot place post haste. The editor of- the Herald says the Tongans are ' industrious,, cleanly, and moral.' He hasn't been there, or else he has qneer ideas of industry and morality. Mb Thomas Finnigan, of North Melbourne, writes over asking ua to correot a false impression which has gained currency in connection with a sculling race which took place on the 21st April last. He says the race was undoubtedly won by Mr A.' Paul of Napier, but that the prize money was only £1 and not £25 as stated, and further that he, (the defeated man) was comparatively a novice at sculling, as he had only sat in a boat three times. A rather good story i 3 told of two young embryo lawyers who are at present ' baching 1 ' .in quarters not far from the neighbourhood of Newton. It seems the brothers quarrelled about who should carry the key of their palatial residence, and in the difficulty one was returning home rather late one night, and found to his dismay he was locked out. Not to be outdone, he tried to scramble in through a window, but when half way in manrvjrfid to get fastened by some means or another. The difficulty became more embarassing when a oasserby mistook the young fellow for a burglar. It was a case of pull baker pull devil, until the other brother appeared on the scene and explained matters.