WASTE OF CHILD LIFE

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 25

WASTE OF CHILD LIFE

STRICTURES BY A CORONER. , SYDNEY, August 20. The city coroner, iv making recommendations for coping with the prevalence of infanticide, describes it as a very serious disease in the body politic, and one calling for a drastic Temedy. He declares ( that the limitation of families is almost j entirely confined to persons .who are. living j in easy circumstances. The avoidance ofl -the cares of maternity and' an excessive < desire for social gaiety and the mode of life generally are the chief causes of small families. He adds : that if the present practice continues the whole political control of the , States must eventually fall . into the hands of the working classes. j"ln my opinion," -he says, "no State- . can. be prosperous in" the widest accepta- , I tion of the term if it is ruled by one class J alone." j Some strongf comments on the prevaj lence of 'nfanticide in Melbourne were j made by the city coroner (Dr Cole) on the 3rd inst at the conclusion of inquiries ■ ' into the deatha of thiee newly-born in- j fasts. The evidence in each case disclosed ■ that death was due to suffocation, but 1 there were no facts to show the cause of 1 ! this. . I I On the morning of July 11 a male infant , was found by William Kingston,' a tram- ' 1 way employee, wrapped up in a black ' ' apron, «wpon a vacant allotment near Luke street, Collingwood. The body was covered with brown paper, inside the apron. Kingston reported the matter to the police, who removed the corpse to the morgue. ( An autopsy was performed by Dr Mollison, j I who was of opinion that death was, due to I suffocation after birth. A verdict to that : effect -was returned by the coroner. I On the same morning the body of a baby j I girl was discovered by two schoolboys in Royal Pa«k,- near -the Brunswick Football-; ! Ground. The- youths— James Hodgson and j Jack Savage*— found the corpse wrapped in , j brown paper, as in the previous case, and f informed the' police of the occurrence. , There were no external 'marks of violence on th* body, although bloodstains were around the mouth and nostrils. Dr Mac- . keddie stated that death was due to suffo- . cation. The coroner brought in a verdict 1 that the infant died from suffocation, there t

being " no evidence to Bhow how it was claused. < ■ x I '' Three boys who had been for a stroll on July 18 came upon the corpse of a-newly-Lorn female infant in a tree-jpiard in Station .street, Port Melbourne. One of I ike . lads ran for the police, and subsequently Dr Mackeddie conducted an - autopsy at the morgue. It was ascertained I that death was due to suffocation. The doctor was of opinion that the child had beep Jmurdered through neglect. A verdict : similar to that in each of the previous ■ cases TvaS returned. ' I ■ At, the . copculsi^n of the inquests strong I comffient3 were made by the coroner concerning: nhild slaughter. It appeared, he said, that there was a class of people in Melbourne who would stop 'at nothing to .conceal the evidences of their wrong-doing. 1 Iv the ifiroe present cases the children i ■were all lieslthy, normal babies, who might I have gretrn "up into good and useful citi-rzen|.--'He had ho doubt" "in his mind that' the -three infanta were done to death either -fty t -deliberate -design 0r. .-by- -criminal neglect-.- In Melbourne people seemed to be drifting into a state of things similar t to that which existed in the worst period i of the Roman Empire, when -infanticide' became so common as \to -be almost" neglected. Cases of' 4he kind were constantly recurring, and in .the light of a falling birth rate, •he trusted the State - would be able~to do something' to check the dreadful waste of innocent child life. .