The Lyttelton Orphanage.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5651, 22 June 1886, Page 3

The Lyttelton Orphanage.

ALLEGED ILL-TREATMENT OF A BOY. A few days ago, Mr A. Chalmers, Mayor of Lyttelton, received a letter from two residents of the Borough, Messrs Stephen Norris and John Dyer, containing an allegation that a little boy, named Mitchell, one of the inmates of the Lyttelton Orphanage, had been subjected to gross illtreatment. They stated that about three o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, Jun« 10, which, it will be remembered, was a cold and rainy day, while engaged in executing some repairs at the back of the buildings, they heard loud screams a little distance away, As these continued for about ten minutes, Mr Norris went round the corner of the building to see what waa the matter. There, he affirmed, he saw the child Mitchell, stark naked, sitting on the asphalt close to one of the concrete channels, from which an older boy waa baling cold water and throwing it over him. Norris called out to the big boy to " stop it," but his injunction was unheeded. He then called Dyer, and the two made the older lad atop throwing the water over Mitchell, and take him inside. They declare that the hitter was " blue with cold," and say that they feel sure that, had he been kept naked and wet much longer, he would probably have died. They enquired of the elder boy the reason for his treatment of Mitchell, and were told that the little boy had committed some childish act of uncleanliness, and that he (the elder lad) had been ordered by Mr Brownlie, the master, to wash him. The men tried to ascertain if children who did as Mitchell had done were habitually treated in the same manner, but could not obtain any satisfactory evidence, for, while some of the scholars told them that it had repeatedly been done, others said that it had never occurred before. Messrs Norris and Dyer deemed it their duty to inform the Mayor of the Borough of what they had witnessed, and offered to substantiate their statement upon oath. Mr Chalmera forwarded the letter to the Orphanage Committee, which held a special meeting yesterday to consider the case, and resolved to make a full and searching enquiry into the matter.