ONE OF LIFE’S TRAGEDIES

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 54, 27 November 1926, Page 15

ONE OF LIFE’S TRAGEDIES

MOTHER ABANDONS HER BABY

LEFT ON DOORSTEP OF HOME

Dominion Special.

Christchurch, November 26.

On returning home on the night of November 16. the matron of the Salvation Army Maternity Home at Christchurch found that a month-old baby had been left in a dress basket on the veranda. A note was attached which read, “Phyllis Brown, please keep baby until I call for her.” The mother of the child, a married woman aged 31, appeared before Messrs. F. Il Christian and AV. E. Simes, J.P.’s, in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, and ’'ended guilty to a charge of unlawfully abandoning the child. Mr. J. B. Batchelor appeared , for accused. The driver of one of the service cars running between Kaikonra and Christchurch- stated that accused was one of his passengers on November 16. All the luggage she had was a wicker basket, and she carried a baby. She asked to be put down at the Carlton Hotel. Bealey Avenue, saying that she would be returning north on the Thursday following. She did not do so. The driver of another car said that accused came to him and said that she had missed Pope’s car, and wanted to get back to Blenheim. He took her as far as Domett, and transferred her to another car for Kaikoura. She did not have a baby with her. Senior Sergeant J. P. Clarkson, of Blenheim, said that he interviewed the accused at Canvastown on November 22. She made a statement in which she said that she was a married woman living apart from her husband The baby was born in a motor-car on the way to fhe AVairau Maternity Hospital. Later accused got work at Canvastown, and remained there until November 16, when she came to Christchurch, and left the baby on the veranda of the Salvation Army Maternity Home. She intended it to be kept there for about two months, by which time she expected to be in a position to put it in a home. Detective J- Thompson, who was present at an interview between accused and her father, said that she told her father that she was with her husband in the North Island between last Christmas and New Yenr. She had four other children, two of whom were in the Methodist Home, Papanui. one was with her husband’s parents, and tho other, about 12 months old. in a home at Sumner. To Mr. Batchelor: On three occasions shortly after the birth of n child accused had been an inmate of the mental hospital. Accused pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Mr. Batchelor asked for the suppression of the accused’s name, saying that the case was one of the tragedies of life. An order was made accordingly. Pending her appearance before the Supreme Court accused is to remain at the Salvation Army Home.