BURDEN ON STATE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 741, 20 April 1933, Page 9

BURDEN ON STATE.

Woman Sent to Gaol for Twelve Months. “ A woman like this should be dealt with under the Mental Defectives Act, b’*t I dotjbt if the definition goes so far,” commented the Magistrate (Mr E. D. Mosley) this morning, when Olive May Waldren. alias May Daws, a domestic aged 36, appeared on charges of being idle and disorderly and an incorrigible rogne, having insufficient lawful visible means of support. She was convicted and sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment. She was described by Senior-Sergeant Fox as of a particularly low type, with six illegitimate children. The senior-sergeant said that all the children were being maintained by the State. No maintenance was received from any of the fathers. The first was probably self-supporting by now and it was estimated that that one child had cost the State £825. The basis the Department worked on was a guinea a week, and it had in this case to meet the charge of five. Two of the six children were dark, a Hindoo being the father. Recently the woman had been living in a hut in Hereford Street and had been neglecting her baby, which was found in a half-starved condition.

The Magistrate said that if the definition of the Mental Defectives Act did go far enough the woman certainly should, in the public interest, be dealt with under it. She required supervision and could not be permitted to carry on as she had been doing. It was an impossible position for the public and the State.