SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1904. SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN. That Eketahuna Case.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 217, 27 August 1904, Page 6

SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1904. SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN. That Eketahuna Case.

MARGARET Thompson, of Eketahuna, has gone to gaol for one month and a day That lady cUdn t want to go On July 16th m the Eketahuna Magistrate s Couit, Stipendiary Magistrate James found that she had been guilty of brutal cruelty to a niece aged tnnteen, and convicted her Maigaret Thompson evidently believed that it was an extremely cruel thing for a mere magistrate to send her to gaol for one month's "hard " For what? Giving a motherless youngster five 01 six "hidings" a day, stripping her naked, and thrashing her with a strap "lots of times " Driving her to make the beds, and "hiding" her if she failed to accomplish the task. Pulling her hair, hitting her with the tongs, blackening her eyes, and bumping her against the wall Put. ting sheep dip and kerosene on her head, throwing a stick at her, and cutting her head • The doctor s evidence — "The child seemed badly nourished Her head was very dirty, and the hair was off m patches There was an old cut on the back of the head, he should say about six weeks old The eye was black, and the jawbone bruised , a scar of a cut over the right eyebrow ; scars on forehead, some healed and some healing ; the right wrist looked like an old dislocation ; the arm was swollen more than ono would expect from an old dislocation, a bruise at the right elbow, also on the shoulder blade , the bruises would happen within a week or so ; also bruises on left chest and shoulder , bruises on the right thigh, on each side, probably from knocks or blows The bruises on the cheek and left eye were the result of one blow." * * * Magistrate James remarked at the time that the case was the most brutal that had ever come before him on the Bench He gave the accused one month, when he could have given her three — the maximum — and she, smarting under the "injustice," appealed, and the Supreme Court have disallowed the appeal with costs It is hard to believe in a civilised country, whose people send allegedly intelligent men to represent them in Parliament, that the law should be allowed to remain in such a state * • • For a petty theft a person may, and has been, sent to hard labour foi three, six, nine, or twelve months , for assault, seven years , for sheepstealing, seven yeais , for illegal practice, seven years or more Isn't it a crying shame that little children deprived of their parents should be subjected to slow and continuous torture by men and women luffians, who cannot be dealt with as ruffian" by the law 1 ? Far better that they should never have been born than that any law should practically give adult persons licence to torture them * • • The Eketahuna case, unfortunately, is not the only one that has been heard in New Zealand lately There have been worse cases, the punishment for which has been absolutely inadequate to prevent recurrence The law doesn't provide for adequate punishment. The House is maundering along its drowsy way, talking; about Stud Bills, and timber, and harbours, and all sorts of things that

don't matter twopence in comparison with this. If the New Zealand laws dealing with social question* are fashioned on good old Butish precedent, it seems they aie good enough for us Are they ? » * What is the good of the Scddon child-life preservation scheme if any child is to be brought up to be made a target for a brutal person? We want a law that will permit Margaret Thompson, of Eketahuna, or any othei woman or man acting similarly, to be treated as if she. or he had broken into a stable and stolen a racehorse. We want life, and especially child-hfe, to be made ci least as sacred as property in the ey< of the law