REVOLTING CASE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 56, 24 July 1912, Page 4

REVOLTING CASE

TI-IE BROKEN HOME. CHILDREN'S PATHETIC PLIGHT. ' At the Juvenile Court at Christchurch on Saturday morning, three boys, aged 13, 10 and six years respectively, were charged with not being under proper control. Mr. C. T. Aschman, headmaster of the Normal School, gave evidence as to their attendance at school without boots and stockings. He had seen them picking their way to school with the frosty air biting their bare raw feet, and on more than one occasion they had to have their numbed feet, thawed at school.

Miss Ingpen, a kindergarten teacher, said that the children's feet were more like lumps of raw meat than anything else. One of them had had weals on his legs which he had informed her were caused through his father thrashing him. The children were also very, very dirty.

Detective Gibson said that the boys'' mother had divorced the father some time ago, and he believed that she was now living in Auckland. The father had married agaiij to a woman who was tilso a divorcee. Tho stepmother's own children (also residing with the family)! were well looked after. The father had two motor-ears and two or three houses, and his residence was connected with the telephone. His Worship: What is hia occupation?, Detective Gibson: A plasterer. His Worship: How can he keep tvr® motor cars? Detective Gibson: I do not know. Continuing, Detective Gibson said that' they had taken the woman's children, with one exception, from her some time ago. The other child was well nourished, and looked after, and treated 1 altogether; differently from the other children. The condition of .the children had been reported to him some time before the disappearance of a boy—another member of the family. Chief Detective Bishop said that apart) from the recent disappearance of one of the children, the matter would still have been brought before His Worship. The father of the children said thai he was a plasterer. His first wife had divorced him about 15 months ago. He had paidi her money to get the divorce, and he had then married the woman whom he had since been living with. He knew that some of her children had been taken from her. She had one child with her when he married her, and the other children had been looked after in exactly the same way as her own child.

'His Worship: Well, if that is the case that child ought to be before me novr also. Look at those children now.

The father: I bought them boots, but' they chucked l them into the range. I could not keep on buying them boots. In reply to a further question, th* father said the boys had all had a wash on Wednesday. His Worship: And their clothes were washed for the last time last year? I don't believe you! They're a disgrace to anyone!

Chief Detective Bishop, to the father: You've got two motor-cars and a lot of property.

The father: It is mortgaged. His Worship: The possession of property does not imply a due sense of morality, or looking after children. The whole thing smells horribly badly. In reply to Miss Ingpen's statement, the man said that the furthest he had gone in punishing the boys was in strapping their hands. The weals which' appeared on one of the boy's legs had not been inflicted by him. He had tried to get them to go to Sunday-school, but they would not go. Albert Lawrence tendered evidence on the father's hehalf. In reply to questions, he said that he was employed in driving a cart for the father, and he \v;n 18 years of age. He had never 'had any objection to the treatment of the children. He was a relation of the stepmother.

His Worship: Stand down! I prefe* to trust the evidence for the police t# that of an irresponsible youth of 18. His Worship ordered the children to be committed to the Christchurch lieform Home, to be brought up in th« faith of the Church of England. He also asked Mr. Aschman to report to th« police similar cases that came under his notice.