Illegitimacy.

White Ribbon, Volume 5, Issue 60, 1 June 1900, Page 10

Illegitimacy.

A meeting of vv mien interested in the question of “Social Purity ” was held at the Young Men s Christian Association Rooms, Christchurch, on June qth. Mrs I Hack, President of the Women’s Institute, presided and there was a fair attendance. In her opening remarks, Mrs Hlack said that immorality seemed to be on the increase, and she was sure that all would recognise the importance of the subject they had met to consider. Parental neglect or indifference was, in almost every instance, at the root of the e\ il ; children left to themselves invariably went wrong. As the results were so far-reaching, they should use every means in their power to prevent its continuance, and parents should l>e made to feel their great responsibilities. Mrs Hlack then called on Mrs Wells to address the meeting, and to propose the motions that were to be discussed. Mrs W ells spoke ably on the question of Illegitimacy, dwelling on the disabilities placed on illegitimate children, and said that the people, that was, the State, could not neglect those children, for

they must be held responsible for their well-being. W rong conditions were the cause of so much evil, and the conditions must be altered. Both parents should be held responsible for the little ones they brought into the world ; and as in wedlock the wife and children bore the father’s name, so should illegitimate children bear the name of their father. The father in that case had assumeJ tlic same responsibility as the. married man, and should l>e made to l>ear it. 1 he innocent child should not enter the world weighted down with disabilities that the child born in wedlock had not to carry. A properly qualified officer should be appointed, and should l>e instructed to endeavour to ascertain the paternity of illegitimate children. It would, perhaps, lie difficult in some cases to do so, but it should be done. It might seem hard to the wife and legitimate children of a married man that a child born out of wedlock should bear the father’s name, but every law was hard for someone, and the married woman now had her remedy. 1 he result of the adoption of the course suggested would be no worse than things are now, and it was only right that a wife should know if her husband was unfaithful. Neglected children should be gathered together in Cottage Homes, for they were liable to become a menace to society. The Cottage Home, where a foster-mother could have charge of several children, was the ideal home for neglected children. The detention of those who were the parents of more than one illegitimate child was advocated by the speaker, who said that the children of such parents very often l>e- < ame criminals, and the parents themselves were a menace to society. Mrs Wells then moved the following motions: (i) “That, in view of the hardships annually imposed upon many

innocent children by the conditions of illegitimacy, and the absolute uselessness as a d. terrent from immorality of b»g"d disabilities indicted upon those childien, it is high time that all such legal disqualifications were removed. That considering (a) the great mortality among illegitimate children, and (b) the neglected condition of many of them, w ho help to swell the ranks of the criminal and the diseased, this meeting resolves -(i) That the State should make generous provision for the maintenance, supervision and education 'of all such children ; that parents should he obliged to contribute according to their means to the support of their children ; that these children shall possess an equal legal status with those horn in wedlock, and shall bear tlie name of the father ; that in cases of intestacy these children should share property equally with any other children of the same parent. (2) That a public officer, who shall be legally qualified, and who may he a woman, be appointed, whose duty it will be on the registration of the birth of an illegitimate child, or before, to dis cover parentage, with a view to enforcing proper maintenance of the child. (3) 1 hat in view of the fact that numbers of children in this colony horn out of wedlock are seriously neglected, for which reason many become a menace to society, this meeting suggests that cottage homes should l>e established in various districts for the reception of such children, w ho should be there maintained until they have reached a fitting age to pass into a State industrial or technical school. (4) That legal detention is necessary for the fathers and motheis of more than one illegitimate child in cases where the responsibility of parenthood is not assumed.” Mrs W ells dwelt at length on the need for vigorous action in tlie direction

indicated in these motions, and gave many sad instances of cases which had come under her own notice as a member of the Charitable Aid Hoard. She concluded by a powerful appeal to the mothers present to let their sympathies go out to the so-called illegitimate children in our midst, and see that justice was done to them. Miss kolierts, in seconding the motions, said that lop-sided legislation was responsible for the disabilities under which illegitimate children were placed. In the Isle of Man, where women had always voted with men, an illegitimate child always bore the father’s name. Sex should not debar women from any position on public bodies, and they should have a voice in saying w hat should he done to better the conditions of the outcast children. The speaker said she believed in the principle of all the motions moved, and specially advocated the detention of parents of piore than one illegitimate child She thought that overcrowding had a great deal to do with immorality amongst the young, and gave as an example a case that had been brought to her know ledge, w here a father, a mother, and thirteen children were occupying three rooms. Terrible results were hound to follow from such conditions. '1 lie motions were carried unanimously. Mrs Munnings referred to the neces sity for teaching God’s laws to the young, and impressing upon children that those laws could not he broken with impunity. She said that it was inconsistent to send missionaries to teach people in far away lands the truths of the Bible w hen children in this colony were kept largely in ignorance of these truths. After a few words had been spoken by Mrs Cole, the meeting was closed*