A WAYWARD GIRL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2350, 3 November 1921, Page 2

A WAYWARD GIRL.

PARENTS’ STRANGE EXPEDIENT.

The extraordinary spectacle of a well-dressed young girl charged with vagrancy, on the information of her father, was to be seen in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch on Thursday last.

The charge was intended as a means of bringing the girl, who appeared to be about LS years of age, under the control of her parents.

The girl’s mother, a neatly-dress-ed woman, explained that the informant, the father, was not in Court; he was “at business.” “Ac want to bring our daughter up respectable,” she, explained. “She’s been keeping company with undesirables, and we want to stop it.”

.Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M.: This is a very drastic step, to have your daughter arrested because you can’t control her otherwise.

The mother: She's a good girl when she’s* left alone, but she has got to know a fellow we don’t like. Twice he has enticed her away from home.

The Magistrate: How many children have you

The mother: Only the one,

The Magistrate: Apparently it’s Ihe tragedy of an only child who has been spoiled, and who has go! out of control. The informant, the fa I her, is not here. The information is dismissed for want of prosecution. (To the girl): You may go. Go back to your parents, and obey them.