ABANDONED CHILD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 12, 15 January 1936, Page 2

ABANDONED CHILD

J MOTHER’S PATHETIC STORY. ' WAS GUIDED BY A MAN. [ Per Press Association. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 14. The pathetic circumstances which led ’ to a child being- abandoned at. Woolworth’s on December 20 were related in ' the Magistrate’s Coirt this morning. . Delia Rabbitt, aged 25, domestic, . pleaded guilty to a charge of abandon- , ing Gordon Nathaniel Brown, a child under the age of two years, and was , committed for sentence. Two statements made by Rabbitt dis--1 closed her reason for wishing to be rid of the child. “I thought he would be better looked after,” she said in one statement, which contained the informal ion that she was a single woman. Waldon AlcClaren Alatthews, em- ' ployed at Woolworth’s, described finding the child, which he held up to view in the shop. The shop was particularly crowded at the time the child was found. Later the child was handed over to the police. Nora Fitzgerald, housemaid at the New Railway Hotel, said that on December 20 Rabbitt booked in under the name of Airs. AlcDonald. Rabbitt had two children, a girl and a boy, with her. The following morning witness noticed only one child with the woman. Rabbitt, in a satement to the police, said that her parents knew nothing of the two children, and she had decided to return home. She left the girl with a friend. She suggested to Nathaniel Brown, well-borer, now of Alasterton, but at that time of Greymouth, father of the children, that the boy should be put in a home. Brown said that if she did their names would be brought up, and he suggested that the best thing to do would be to leave the child where he could be picked up by a constable and no one would know who left him. She was entirely guided by Brown. Brown gave her money for her fare from Greymouth to Christchurch. Continuing, Rabbitt said that she took the boy to Woolworth \s, and while she was at the counter the boy walked away a bit and she saw a girl pick him* up. On the spur of the moment accused -walked out of the shop. She thought that he would be better off in a home. She saw while on her way to Dunedin that the boy had bemi found, ami she felt relieved. She made no attempt to claim him and intended to leave him so long as he was properly looked after. If Brown had not suggested to abandon the boy she would not have done it. Brown had always maintained the children, although there was no Court order. Rabbitt pleaded guilty and was committed for sentence.