SORDID CONDITIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5303, 23 July 1928, Page 3

SORDID CONDITIONS.

COVERED WITH VERDUN.

•MOTHER AND SON CHARGED.

"The house where they lived was in a filthy condition'. There was, onjy one bed for two persons to 'Sleep on, and the bed clothes consistel "of a piece of dirty blanket and filthy old clothes. They were covered w’th vermin, and the straw used, as a bed was .actually moving with creeping things.” This evidence was given by Sergeant Wood's, of Lambtion,', iir a case heard at the Newcastle (N.S.W.) Police Court, when Esther Young (46) domestic 'dut'es, and hen son, Joseph Young (26), labourer, were charged with 'having unsufficient means of support. Both pleaded not guilty. The woman. appeared to be at least 60 years l of age, g,nd was cla<l in an old overcoat, with pieces of cloth tidd round her legs for stockings. .The man was of powerful buffil, and his speech indicated that he had received' a good education.

Sergeant Woods told the mag-strate that the woman called' at the police, station for a food order, but he had instructions to issue no more to her. Complaints haebbeen deceived that she tore payings off neighbours’ fences and used them as firewood, and ordered goods from the storekeepers and walked out without paying. The man had said that he» had not worked for three years, but had been ill with rheumastiiSm. # “The place, they lived in was the dirtiest I have ev6r seen,” remarked the sergeant, who said the house was situated at North Larnbtoin. The magistrate said that representations ought to be made to the sanitary authorities to have the house put in oi’.’der

The woman was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with light labour, and her son to a month’s hard labour.

As they were led out. of court the mother volubly instructed her son to look after himself while 'h'e was away from her.