An Old Woman's Death

Horowhenua Chronicle, 26 July 1910, Page 4

An Old Woman's Death

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

(Eventing News, Cbristchurcdi)

An old woman named Georgina Ambrose, whose age is given iat anything between seventy and eighty, died at her home, Hill's rood, Marshland, wilder circumstances which were as extraordinary as they were pitiable. The building she called iher home is a wooden corrugated iron shanty, divided, in.to two compartments, and occupying a fuirly large section at the comer of Hill's and lirisrgs' roads. Last night Constable Smith, who is stationed at St. Albans, received a message that ithe old woman was dying, and he at once prooeedied to her place. He saw that t'ho womaiii was very ill, and he sent fon a doctor. Dr! Withers responded to the message, but shortly after he arrived the old woman breached her last She was an old age pensioner, and was well-known hy sight .to many people in the city, the euphonious niokivame of "Mother ©nek" having been bestowed on her. She was always pushing an old and rather dilapidated perambulator, in which she stowed away the trifles she picked up or were given to ilner. She seems latterly to have been "a- picker up of unconsidered triues." Her earlier career is not definitely known but rb is believed that she was on the gold fields both of Australia and New Zealand. She was wot married, but it is believed that she was the aunt of a girl whose tragic death provided Melbourne <witth a sensation a few years back. Tho girl was murdered, and disfnembered, the-remains packed in a tannic, and thrown imto tine Yarra. SHOCKING REVELATIONS. A "News" reporter visiited .tho old woman's shanty to-day, and found that the conditions under which the woman had been living for some years past were shocking in .the extreme.. Tho place was almost inconceivably filthy, and it would require almost optical demonstration to convince anyone that such an existence was possible in these days ol' inspection and compulsory sanitation. The approach to the house lay through a water-logged area, the worst portions of which were spanned with logs of wood, boards, wild old ladders. Dead docks stood in melancholy profusion, adding to the general tone of desolation. The backyard was littered with the most ■heterogeneous collection of articles one could wish to seo. Three old perambulators of the heavy iron type were the most noticeable items in the collection. Then there were boxes, bottles, bags, jars, pots and pans, fowls dead and alive, and a black dog of nondescript breed. Lifting the wooden boxes, an extraordinary discovery came to lighit. The old woman had used them as meat and vegetable safes. Under one was placed some bacon, simply laying it on the filthy ground, and then turning the box over it. Under another box there was a vegetable marrow and some onions. The b'ickyard was in nn indescribably filthy condition. The fowls—•there must have been about a hundred of tl'om—rioted abouit in the filth. The scene may be left to the imagination. A WEIRD COLLECTION.

The shanty as said before, consisted of two apartments, each .having its separate door from the "back yard. At one door lay the body of a deceased fowl, the smell from which .stridently proclaimed that the last summons for the unfortunate bird had been delivered some \veekn ago. Opening he door, :m astonishing sight met the eye. The room, perhaps 10ft by 10ft, was waist deep with a weird collection of old clothes, bags, parcels, sacks, hats, boots, and other things the old woman hud got jKissession of. There must have been hundreds of articles there, for which she had .110 use. She seems to have been obsessed with a mania for old clotihes and ■jtlior trifles. "What is in that parcel?" the -reporter asked a constable, who obligingly cut Wne string securing a neatly-looking bundle. A p'lir of men's boots, in a good state of repair, rolled out and joined (he motley collection. Old liiitfi, women's hints, children's hats, every kind of hat one could think of was there. ICvery article of clothing one could mention was there. In one cornor was a- small stove, where the old woman i.s presumed to haw done her c; ©king. l,t was almost: iiiacce.-'sible over the heap of goods. A tallow candle, with guttered edges, stuck to a box, proclaimed ihat it had fiirn-ished light at nights. To make the confusion worse, the fowls had been the old woman's companions. The smell from the plane was nauseating. The other room, in which the old woman breathed her last, was on a par with the one just desoitibe-d. It was heaped two or three feet deep with the .same kind of 'rubbish, clothes predominating. A few pi nit pewters hung on the wall, and the only other adornment was « picture of ithe late Queen Victoria, and cobwebs of considerable age and extrano dirtiness. Looking through the hea]) of stuff, one came on some peculiar things. There was an old alarm clock, which had seen better days, a grimy book of "Guildver\s Travels," biscuit tins, some brooches, hats, bags, and boots galore; grocer's boxes and clothes, clotihes, clothes! There was also ith ©insinuating smell of filth. On Itop of this motley and horrifying couch an old woman had breathed her last. CHAMBER OF HORRORS. The fowl-house was another chamber of horrors. Dead hems lay there noting and smelling. The place was worse than ever a pigstye could be. The smell rose and. nauseated one. There wei;e some small cupboards near the shanty. They were packed with old teapots, jugs, and all sorts of vessels. Near them were some earthenware jars, and demijohns. Horseshoes, ' fenders, tins, cases—the eye encountered them wherever it turned. One could rnlmost say that nothing was missing, from a needle to an 'anchor.