PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRIES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1508, 2 August 1912, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRIES.

A CIIIUSTCHUKCII PETITION. A somewhat unusual petition was presented in the House of Kepresentatives 011 Wednesday by 3lr. L. 31'. Isitt, 31.P. It emanates from official representatives in Christchurch of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, and other similar bodies, and refers to the case of a child which was committed to tlio Christchurch Ttecr-ivi tit? Home on n 3lagistrate's order, ill December, mit). According to the petition, the foster parents of the child petitioned the House of Kepresentatives in the following year for a full inquiry into tlio facts attending the making of tlio order. This petition, it is further stated, was |ieard at Wellington in October, 1911. without any opportunity being given to the Society for the Protection of Women and Children to produce evidence against the petition. The Petitions Committee made a favourable recommendation and subsequently the child was restored to its foster-parents Uv direction of the .\cting-31iuister for Kducation. The present: petition slates, in efl'eet, that tin- committal of the child by tlio Magistrate was amply justified by acts of cruelly oil the part of the fosterparents. li is asked that a full inquiry may lie made into all the facts of the case, by ffoval Commission or otherwise, and that provision bo made to seeuro that ill future all persons interested in questions being investignted by a Parliamentarv Committee shall <have reasonable notice of such inquiry and reasonable facilities for giving evidence.