PARENTS BURN SALT TO SAVE SON

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5300, 13 January 1947, Page 7

PARENTS BURN SALT TO SAVE SON

WILTSfflRE COUPLE THOUGHT NEIGHBGURS WERE WITCHES LONDON , Because they believed that their neighbours were exercising witchcraft against their four-year-old sun, a Wiltshire couple put salt on the fire to counteract the influence. It liad to be common salt, not table salt, they stressed. The survival in the 20th century of this medieval belief in black magic was alleged when the parents pleaded not guilty, before a speeial court at Trowbridge, to ill-treating and neglecting the ehild in a manner likely to cause injury to his health. They were Ernest Samuel Gale, aged 44, a textile worker-, and Violet Maria Gale, aged' 38, of Studley Rise, Trowbridge. The son, Edward, neatly dressed in a brown eoat and hat, sat on the lap of his weeping mother throughout the hearing, -ealing hiscuits from a large paper bag and looking at coloured pictures in a book. Cowed and Pale Mr. J. B. Taylor, for the N.S.P.C.C., said that Mr. Eric Brewer, one of the society's inspectors, went to the Gale's home and found the ehild looking cowedi and pale. The parents agreed that the ehild had heen kept up late and slept in their hed. "Something was said about putting salt on the fire to stop the ehild crying," Mr. Taylor said. "When questioned about this the mother said: 'Edward wakes up crying, scratches me, and pulls my hair. We get up and put salt on the fire. We hear a chinking- noise at the back of the grate and the crying stops.' " "The inspector was also told hy Mr. and Mrs. Gale that from tirne to time they heard banging noises on the wall at the back of the grate, and that when, salt was put on th'e fire they heard a pinging -or chinking- noise and the bangijng behind the wall ceased." "Forlorn and Alone" It was not suggested that the parents wei-e cruel and heartless towards 'the ehild, \wh>o "was cl(ean and well clothed. It was simply that through mistaken, not malicious, motives they had been following a couxse of conduct which amounted to neglect likely to result in unnecessary danger to the child's health. Inspector Eric Brewer, • of Bath, said he advised the parents to provide a proper hed for the ehild, but when he vSsited the h/Dmje adivice had not been taken. Then three days later he found that this ehild was then sitting "forlorn and alone" on the damp pavement. "I felt that the practices of the parents might already have affected the child's mind." Dr. Jean Murray, distriet medical officer of health, said Mrs. Gale told her the ehild would not allow her to dress him. She would sometimes try to do.so for two and a half hours and then have to send for his [ mother. . After Mr. Taylor had explained that no order could be made in law for the ehild to he taken to another place until the present case was proved, or the ehild found to be in moral danger, Mr. Trevor Hill, for the parents, had a short discussion with them. Afterwards he said they were willing* to apply for the ehild to be taken into a nursery school for three months. During that period the father would subject himself to medical treatment, and the parents would Inx up proper hedroom accommodation for the ehild. When the ehild returned they w'ould do everything they could to hring it up in a proper manner. The magistrate agreed to this and the case was formally adjoumed for three months, "the ehild to be taken to a place- of safety."