A HEAVY PENALTY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1721, 11 April 1913, Page 5

A HEAVY PENALTY.

:. ■ \ CHILD ADOPTION CASE. ■ , (By. Telegraph.—Press Association.)' ' Auckland, April" 10. ' This morning Mr. Cutten, S.M.', gave . judgment ia a case in which Elsie .Treacy, a married woman,. was charged ■ with a breach of the Infants Life Protection Act, in having/ without a license as i'oster-niothor, adopted an illegitimate , child, and accepted a premium (of <S3O) from the parents. Mrs. "Treacy. admitted the offoe. Chief-Detectivo M'Mahon"' pointed out that Mts. Treacy-had kept the child for over three months, and that its mainten- :: anco would havo cost ;her from 12s; to 15s. ■ a week. ' If the 'woman were fined the whole amount'of the premium. accepted, . sho would have kept . the. child that time for nothing. There was no suggestion . that Mrs. Treaoy had not properly lookedafter the child. The Magistrnte< said there was no doubt . that the offencewas made' by lav.- a very : serious one, and thepenalties, were heavy, v ; In this particular, case, it may have happened that no harm,, had;come to'the, , child, but the offence was one which the -. ■ law-,intended to be firmly" dealt with, and : he'could not see his, way to flo other than .impose a "heavy penalty. • Defend-, v would be convicted,' and filled .£2O and costs.: 1 . . . '

The death occurred at Birmingham on February .18, of Sir Thomas! Chavnssc, a -prominent Birmingham. surgeon. He had 1 fractured his thigh in tho hunting field' shortly beforo Christmas., Sir Thomas, . 'who was" in his fifty-ninth, year,;was for ; thirty-one ypavs honoraryVsurgeon of the Birmingham General Hospital,. and was regarded as an'authority on surgical sci- ■ encf in relation to canotr. He had been chairman of the East Worcestershire Lil- . "oral Unionist Association-for many years.