LIVING IN A HOVEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 57, 12 June 1916, Page 7

LIVING IN A HOVEL.

Per Press Association. Dunedin, June 9

A deplorable ease, which made one doubt the wisdom of the admonition to "keep the cradle full" was before the Juvenile Court at Dunedin the other day when a mother of six poor-ly-clad children, ranging from 14 years of age to a baby in arms, appeared in connection with a charge against the five elder children of not being under proper control The statement of the police revealed a wretched state of affairs. A family of seven, it appeared, lived on the peninsula in a hovel which measured only 24ft by 15ft. The bedding was ragged and filthy, the window broken and partly covered Avith a shoot of iron, and the whole premises were in a disgustingly dirty condition. The husband went away three weeks ago, and the wife was unaware of his whereabouts. She pleaded to be allowed to keep three ol the children for "company at night," but His Worship committed the whole five (one of whom was partly deaf and dumb) to Caversham Industrial School, leaving the mother to make representation to the Education Department with regard to the three sha wished to keep. Examined as to her means, the mother said that her husband "was going to allow her £1 a week, her eldest boy, who had enlisted, was going to send her some money, and her daughter gave her £1 occasionally whenever she (the daughter) did not wane it."