ALLEGED CRUELTY AT THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 4288, 23 November 1876, Page 4

ALLEGED CRUELTY AT THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.

We continue the evidence taken after we », went to pjreaa yesterday ; Mary Ann Bowtnan : I am the wife of Thomas Bowman, .and live next door to Mr Doig. A little before nine o’clock on Sunday evening, when sitting in my honse, I heard the cries of Mary Doig calling “ Jo- * hanna,” who is her sisters I shortly afterwards saw Mary Doig sitting on a box inside her father’s house. She was t trembling, shaking, and crying bitterly. The handcuff with a chain attached was on the right leg, and there was a severe wound on the left leg. The right deg was. slightly grazed, ap.parently by the handcuffs. They had just tune to take the child’s boots off, when a ... policeman and an official of the School arrived. The policeman requested the father to take the child down to the police station. He did* so, and was accompanied by the policeman and the official. Jeremiah Doig : I am father of the girl in question. About nine o’clock on Sunday night last she came into my house. I eat her down upon a box. The handcuff waa on heriright leg. There were only two handcuffs, with a plain chain between them. The chain was longer than that now produced. I examined the leg upon which the chain was, and found it black and bine around where the cuff was’. The handcuff was on the bare leg, as the sock had worked into the boot. I then examined the other leg, and found a wound ab'mt an inch long and half an inch wide. It was above the ankle, and on the inside of the leg. I asked her me th'at|t was the. cuffs. I asked her who put the chains on her, and she told me that it was the Master of the Industrial School. She told me that they had put her in the room, and that she had made her escape. About ten minutes after she came in, the policeman arrived. I,took her down to the station, and the handcuffs were removed at the instance of Inspector Mallard. On Sunday evening,’ when Mi* Ronssell came in, he said that the girl had been let out after tea, and when she came back she was put to her usual punishment. This was in reply to a question of mine, asking him how the chain came on her leg. I am not positive if it waa at my house or at the police station Mr Roussell said this. -- To Mr Titchener: I have visited the school since the girl has been there. It was on last Sunday "fortnight or three weeks. I brought my chUd Back on that occasion, which was the first time she had run away. r ,ca I told you to pdnish her if she made another attempt to run away, but asked yon to ex ense her that time. Yon promised that yon wbuld do so. When she escaped the second time she did complain to me, and said that you had hot kept your^promise and had given her the horsewhip. I got a letter from yon, in which yon stated that unless I made some arrangements for her support you would take nummary proceedings against me. I received a letter from you dated November Ist, in which yon threatened ,to lake proceedings against me if I did hot send the girl back to the School. I did hot challenge to fight the messenger. I refused to let him have the child till morning, and asked him to wait till then. Mr Titchener said that he would like to * call Mr Hislop and Dr Bums, who had a ‘better knowledge of the School than anyone in Dunedin. ; Mr Strode : - We have not come here to inquire into the general management of the . .School, but into a specific charge, namely, that these instruments have put. on the leg of a child. Elijah Titchener: I am master of the Industrial School.: Upon the 26th of October last I received the child, Mary Doig, into; the institution, committed under a warrant to five years for larceny. She remained with me until the 28th October. At 8 p.m. on that day I found that she was -absent, and that She had absconded from the- School. She waa brought back next day by her father at 12 o’clock, and renwnsd with me until the 31st of the same month. At seven o’clock in the morning 'L found that she had absconded'again. I reported the matter to the police on both occasions. On the Ist of November I despatched an attendant to the residence of the parents of the child, and he brought her- ' - back. Her manner and conduct were so bad at her return that I gave her six strokes, with a small willow rod, and sent her to bid. In the morning I took her to the bath-room about 10 o’clock. I sat with her till 11, ; talking _ and reasoning with her. I told.. her if. she would promise me faithfully and honestly that she would not rnU away/1 would give hfr the i isanqeliberty as the other children. - She remained sullen and morose, and would not v . snake any promise. I felt at a loss what to ?40. There was an opening in the partition of the bath-room, and I placed a pair of - : handcuffs (produced) on her ankleSi She had socks and boots on. I put on the handcuff# fdrthe purpose of retaining her till I WonM bring some tools to repair the bath- * .room, .'in which I intended, to confine her, . asjdie Would not promise not to bolt. I ‘ haye no opll nor any room with a lock to it. twenty minutes I returned, and found . that two squares of glass in the window - had been broken during my absence, and the girl was gone. I went, with some of my boys, in the direction of Moraington, and about 300 yards from the rood found her con, eealed in some tussocks in a paddock. I took the handcuffs off, and brought Her back and placed her in a room where Jane Stafford was at work with the sewing machine, whom I told to take charge of the girl till bedtime. I then examined the hooks to see what her condnot had been before: 1 became master. I found that she had been in the habit of' escaping almost every day, and had been a great source of trouble to the late Mrßrit;«m. She had’ been here under two fdfrnler ' wmttlittals—one period being for four years 'and the other for five years, dh my return . after examining Hie records I called her into the office to talk to her. - She said that if Bhe were confined in the dormitory she would jump from the window, which is 18ft from the ground. One girl had jumped from the same height previously. I felt at a loss what to do, and of’the two evils I consi-; dered it would be best to place these things! on her legs. I bored a hole through a board in one of the neighboring, beds and put r the ! cnff throughout and'fdstenfed the other to her leg. The Board, was a loose one, and I'told her incase .'of fire that’it could be i puffed out* I.usedtoput it on at eight in 'the .evening and remove-ffi at six o’clock in, the morning. This continued at.night from' November Ifo November' lb. - During the day she was under the charge of Jane Stalford'. After that;! put no restraint on her during the day, but her movements used to be watched 'by some of the boys. I continued to fasten her in the bed at night up to the tune of her escape., On Sunday 19tb, she escaped, I toot all the ■PbdwW l Jhto ope of the paddocks adjoining the.bnffdihg, auff sat upon ths grass. Mary by «y. ride from 10, to 12.46., , I was reading to them and singing the whole the tune; . She laid’-with her head upon my knee. When 1 left dinner I put my hand opw her heod and i erid, i “ I'think that 1 you are novtt goingitb good girl. ” She f Rn|(hid, ! hnfc raid nothing. At three o’clock <ffredipn pf tffe' Ocqaa Beach, and re- ! turned atfive/ the matron ffuormed me that Mary

plamecPbf Headache? - “•I'tohtMary if-she felt ill she had bettasgb'tiPbed. f>he expressed a to'gn torbed,-<and did seat 6.30. I fastened her in the usual manner. The matron, and I, and the other servants, and the children, then went away for a walk, and on my return at eight o’clock I found put she was gone, and that the board round which the cuff had been fastened had been split up. She was undressed when she was put to bed that night. I never put on handcuffs on the leg which had been cut with the glass. I never shifted the handcuff from one foot to the other, but I would have done so if it had not been for the other leg having been cut by the glass. The lower part of the right leg the day she escaped was slightly discolored, but that was done by reason of the 300 yards which* she travelled with the handcuffs on when she previously escaped. There is something evil inclined about her, and during twenty-seven years’ experience I never saw such a child.

John Hislop: I hold the position of Honorary Inspector of this. Institution. I am not in a • position to m&e any specific statements in regard to what is now before the Commission, but I can speak generally as to the management of the School and to Mr Titchener’s treatment of the children. I am able to state very positively, from almost weekly visits, that the transformation of character and conduct, and even of out ward appearance in the case of the great majority of the children, through the gennine, nnnrstakeable, and judicious kindliness of Mr Titchener and of the matron has to me appeared, for some time past, very remarkable. I have been in the Institution at various times of the day and under very different circumstances, and I know and feel that a spirit :,of thorough kindness pervades "the whole Institution, the attendants evidently taking their cue from the master and matron as to the kindly treatment of the children. I visited the Institution on the 7th of this month, and saw the girl Mary Doig in the workroom with Jane Stafford, the nead nurse. Mr Titchener informed me in the girl’s hearing that he was very sorry to have had to put her under restraint; that he had promised to give her thaeame liberty as the other children upon her agreeing not to run away again; but that as yet she had refused to give that promise. Jane Stafford, Mr Titchener, and myself spoke kindly to the girl, trying to get to her better nature, but without any success. There was no fastening of any kind upon her then. I saw her an hour afterwards at the School bench among the other children. Mr litchener and I had a long conversation as to his troubles with the girl. Among other things, he stated : “ The girl does not seem vr. know fear. lam afraid to leave her at liberty during the night, for lam sure, from what she has said, and' from what she has already done, that she would dash through the window, regardless ofjconsequences.” I told him in reply that he had subdued a number of children of extraordinary bad character, but it would be a feather in his cap if he could reform Mary Doig. I then mentioned some instances of reformation effected by means of Mr Titchener’s kindly treatment. He said; “ Well, I am afraid that will be a hard job, but I will try ray best with A week after, on the 14th, I again visited the School and saw the girl among her schoolmates at her lessons. I remarked to Mr Titchener, “ Mary Doig seems to me to be becoming more humanised in her aspect.” I made that statement because the week previously when visiting the same place rwas pained and. shocked by the extraordinary sullenness of her expression, Which during the week had become considerably modified. Mr Titchener stated that she Seemed to be getting on better, and that he hoped to make something of her yet, but that he had not got her the length of giving . a promise that she would not run away. I did not hear more, of the girl until Mr Titchener put in my hands the report which is now in the hands of the Commissioners, and that waa on last Monday morning. After consultation, we agreed that, at his request, 1 should ask the Hon. Mr M'Lean that a Commission should be appointed to inquire fully into this matter. In August, 1874, the child’s father made a complaint against the late Mr Britton, and aln inquiry was held, conducted by Mr Weldon, Mr Burns, surgeon of the Institution, and myself. I can produce all the papers relative to that inquiry. Mary Doig told me this morning that her father advises her to do well, but there is a woman who keeps a low house in Maclaggan street who advises her to run away and steal. Robert ff|rns: I am a duly-qualified medical practitioner, and have been attached to the Industrial School as surgeon since its foundation in 1869. I examined Mary Doig yesterday. I found on the inside of the left ankle a place from which the skin had been rubbed off. It had sharp edges, and no surrounding redness. The abrasion is 11-12ths of an inch in length, and 7-12ths of an inch id breadth. There was a faint discoloration op the right ankle. There were no other bruises on her person, except over one of the shoulders, which contained some greenish yellow marks of some date. Otherwise, she was in perfect bodily health. She had no appearance of having been deprived of food. I particularly cautioned the warders and M r Titchener regarding the girl’s nature, which was, previously known to me, from her sojourn in the School, for minute inspection. I now find a slight discoloration on the outside of the left ankle. I think the handcuffs were put on in a humane manner, and I do not think that they would have hurt her—certainly not as much as if she fell out of the window, , This concluded the evidence. Mr Hislop said that he had received a letter from Mr Macandrew regarding this inquiry and the management of the Institution. Mr Macandrew, he said, had taken a warm interest in the Industrial School since its commencement. Mr Watt: We cannot receive that.

Mr Bathgate : If that letter be received, so ought Dr Ferguson’s which has been refused.

The Commissioners thought Dr Ferguson’s letter irrelevant, as it only referred to the state in which he found the girl.

Mr Strode : The test is, can these papers answer questions. ' They were both refused, as were also a number of letters which Mr Titchener wished to hand in Jlishowing that he had the confidence and love of every child who had been in the Industrial School.

Mr Doig : My opinion of the matter—— •Mr/Strode; We do not want your opinion. , The proceedings, which extended over four hours, terminated shortly after seven o clock.

A number of letters from former inmates of the Institution, now licensed out, were laid on the table by Mr Titchener. Writing from Balclutha, on August 20 last, Ewen —- speaks feelingly ©f his treatment while in the Institution, and proceeds to say—“ There are a good number of boys up here who I could make an acquaintance with if I wanted, but I generally shun them, as the most of them have very bad habits—such as , smoking, swearirig, fighting, or in any sort : of larrikinism. The whole of them ought to be put to the Industrial School for a while and have their bad habits put a stop to.” ■Many, of the letters spoke of the kind.treatment the writersl had received while in the Institution, „ both from the master and matfrolj, .