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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 224, 21 November 1874, Page 2

Importers of sheep will be glad to learn that the Sheep Inspector has resolved to revert to the use of tobacco and sulphur for dipping at the' Government yards, Port Ahuriri. We are sorry to report that the province has recently lost two valuable sheep through poisoning by the use of carbolic acid.—Napier Telegraph.

Baby Farming—a New Species op Slavery.—The entire abolition of the slave trade has yet to be accomplished in New York, says the Herald. Although the days of slave ships have long since passed, the traffic in human flesh flourishes in another and even a more heinous form. Poor little helpless infants take the place of the dusky children of Africa and brutal nurses that of the overseer. Starvation is found to be a more efficient instrument of torture than the lash which roused the nation once to crush the relic of barbarism that existed in the South. Recent visits to the haunts of the “ baby farmers,” as they are called, reveal a condition of affairs absolutely shocking. The mortality among the poor children in those vile dens reaches sometimes as high as seventy per cent, each year, and the survivors generally have a worse fate before them. Child murder and the sale of infants at this present day can only be regarded as a crying disgrace to the great city. The unfortunate babes who escape the discipline of the institutions fare little better when they are handed over to the individuals who, for the sake of the few dollars paid them, are willing to undertake their charge. The usual result is death from starvation. The want of sufficient funds in the treasuries of the foundling asylums which are recognised by the authorities, and which provide for the health and comfort of those helpless little ones, prevents them from adding to their present responsibilities and leaves a Jarge surplus of uncared-for children at the mercy of those dens of infamy over which baby farmers preside. There is an excellent field here for the exercise of the well-known charitable spirit of the metropolis and for the vigilance of the police.