DIRT AND DESTITUTION AT NELSON.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 83, 3 January 1885, Page 6

DIRT AND DESTITUTION AT NELSON.

Otf Sunday, November 30th, tho death of a woman who residod in a little outhouse at tho back of tho premises in Colling-wood-stroet, Nelson, was reported to tiio police. Inquiries clicitod tho facts that the decoasod was tho wife of Goorge Twogood,who, prior to his admission to the Lunatic Asylum in 1875, was in the employ of Mr Balmo, coachbuilder, and that Mrs Twogood was about 42 years of ago. With her were living her two children, a girl of about 13 and a boy of 10, and. tho mother, we learn, mado a living by going out washing. The girl states that her mother had beon bad two days, but no assistance was called in, and on Saturday night the poor woman fell back on tho bed, whon she placed some hot bricks to her mother's feet. Shortly after the girl says that being exhausted she foil off asleep, and she apparently did not discover that her mother was dead till next day. She then sot out for the Hospital to obtain advice and assistance from Dr. Boor, and she ultimately saw Mr Shallcrass, tho Relioviug Oflicer, and Mrs Shallera&s accompanied the child to their wretched home, which consisted of two small rooms. The room in which tho corpse lay was about four feet wide by eight long, and just high enough to stand upright in ; it contained a eort of stretcher, and the bedclothes were of the most miserable description. A small window of about two feet square, which could bo partially opened by turning on a swivel was the only ventilation, and the squalor and povorty disclosed were such that Mrs Shallcrass declared that without seeing it she could not have believed thero was such a miserable place in Nelson. Tho Bocond room was a Httlo larger, but one could only squeeze through the doore : inside cobwebs and dirt were the noticeable features. Attho coroner's inquest, the jury returned a verdict to the effect that death resulted from apoplexy, and whilst conversing on tho matter, said they thought that such buildings should not be let for people to live in; the foreman stating that it was not fit for a dog. No rider was, however, attached to the verdict,