A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3900, 29 January 1929, Page 3

A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.

HOUSE ON FIRE

CHILD STRAPPED IN CHAIR

The Grcymouth correspondent of the Lyttelton Times forwarded the following telegram on Monday night:— A badly-burned child, aged three and a-ha If years, strapped to a chair, and with many bruises, in addition to (burns j another child about five years of age, whose back was black and .blue, the sign of a very severe thrashing, and three other children, a 14-year-old girl, and a woman, apparently between 50 and 60 years ..of age —all in a house, which was burning in several places. These were the essential features in what provided a sensation for the people of Reefton on Saturday, and a mystery which the police are still trying to solve. When Acting-l Sergeant J. Rodgers, of Brunner, who is in charge of the Reeifton police station, while Sergeant H. Fryer is on holiday, called at the residence of -Mrs. Forman, in Boundary iStreet, Reefton, about four o’clock on Saturday afternoon he discovered that a mattressi was on fire, also a sofa, and some children’s clothing in a chest of drawers was also burning. The (fires were quickly extinguished by the .acting sergeant, and Constable -Hill, of Reefton. Mrs. Forman, when questioned, declared that the three-and-a-half year-old ehild had started the fires. The boy was strapped to an ordinary chair and was crying bitterly. The police left shortly after four o’clock and everything then seemed safe. About 10 o’clock on Saturday night thd police received an “5.0.-S.” call and rushed back to Mrs. Forman’s house. The wallpaper in one -of the bedrooms was blazing, and t'he remains of another outbreak were found in the pantry. The child was released from the chair, and the acting sergeant then discovered that the boy had been badly burnt about the lower part of the body, almost as though the child had been sitting on a fire. Dr. Conlon was sent for and, after giving the boy emergency treatment, ordered his removal to the Reefton Hospital. The woman stated that she did not know the child had been burned. Under the circumstatnces acting Sergeant Rodgers deemed it advisable to remove the other four children from the house, and they also were admitted to the hospital. On examination there it was found that another boy, about five years of age, was badly bruised and his back was practically ail black and -blue, evidently the result of a severe thrashing. The ages of the children range from seven months to six years.

Mrs. Forman had, it is stated, been in the habit of boarding other -people’s children. 'Three of the five in the house on -Saturday, including the two boys who were burned and bruised, respectively, are the Children of a Gcey-mouth married couple. It is understood that Mrs. Forman’s -husband resides in England. She employs a 14-year-old Reefton igirl as a domestic. The affair regains many mysterious features and the police investigation is being continued. Who started the fires both in the afternoon and at night? How did the child receive his serious burns? How long was lie strapped to the chair, and who strapped him to it? Who was responsible for the thrashing- received by the older boy? These are some of the questions the police are endeavouring to answer. <