MAGISTERIAL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2232, 28 May 1881, Page 3

MAGISTERIAL.

CHRISTCHURCH. Saturday, May 28, [Before J. Ollivier and J. Marshman, Baqrr., J.P.'s.] Drunkenness.—Mary Mitchell, for being drunk, was fined 10s. For a first offence, a man was fined ss, Larceny.— Mary Ann Ford, charged with stealing throe ten pound notes from the person of William Young on May 27th was, on the application of the police, remanded till Juno Ist. Neglected Children. —Katie, Thomas, Agnes, and Charles Coleman, oloan and modest-looking children, aged twelve, eleven, six, and five years respectively, were brought np charged as above. The police stated that the children had been found lying in a small house at Addington, without, apparently, any one to look after them. Elizabeth Pole, a neighbor, and Kate Thompson, their aunt, gave evidence in the case, from which it appeared that their parents were drunkards, their mother had been lately convicted, and hod since abandoned her home. The father, a carpenter and wheelwright, a good workman, was of dissipated habits. He had lately been working up-country. He visited the house where the children were left perhaps once a week, and generally, when he had money, got drunk until he had to go to work again. The children were mainly supported by the compassion of tradesmen, who gave them some supplies, and neighbors also did something for them, otherwise they were quite destitute, often being without fire, &c. The magistrates said it was a sad case indeed, and expressed their indignation at the conduct of the father, who, they said, seemed bent on destroying, in every sense of the word, his children. They were unwilling to burden the establishment at Burnham, the accommodation at that place being already over taxed, but common humanity compelled them to send the children there. They wonld be sent to Burnham, each to remain there until their fifteenth year. The father to pay for their maintenance as might be afterwards directed.