CALLOUS MOTHERS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 193, 23 January 1915, Page 6

CALLOUS MOTHERS

THE RESPONSIBILITY SHUNTED. ' -'-w By lelegraph.—Per Press Association, Wellington, Last Night. "These women seem to have no shaii.e and no compunction about parting with their children and leaving Uienl Under the Board's care,'' said the Rev. J. K. Elliott, at the meeting of the Hospitable and Charitable Aid Board to-day. I when tile assistance for children under the Board's care was being .discussed. The subject came up when the chairman of the Charitable Aid Committee (Mr D. Campbell) supplemented his financial Statement with a reference to the increasing number of children dealt with at the Board's institutions. lbi said that the number <>f children commilfted bad increased by 37, as compared with the first nine months of the previous year, the present number in homes and schools being 315. As examples of the cases dealt with, Mr Campbell mentioned tthat of 29 children committed from August to December, 12 were illegitimate offspring of single women. In the cases of seven children the fathers had deserted, anil the circumstances of the mothers made separation desirable. In c-r.e case of four children of one family, the father of two of them had divorced his wife for misconduct with the father of her other two children, who were illegitimate. In another family whei> four cl: ildren were concerned, confirmed insobriety on the part of the mother, coupled with incompetence and Mime inscbriey on 'tihe part of the father, was the ground of committal. One o'lilrt vas deserted by both parents, and another's mother was a widow who »-;u in service.

•'Although the total expenditure on the boarded-ont children," concluded Mr Campbell, "shows an excess of £2<l!) over the estimates, it is hoped that t.lie provision made for contingencies will pp.. I vent a deficit at Uie close of idio financial year, although the prevailing unprecedented conditions make it in" possible to forecast even the immediate future with anything like certainfiv" He urged that the Board should comprehensively review the position of these children. It was at, this stage that the Rev. Mr Elliott expressed his profound regret at the apparent callousness of some woren who parted with their children. "They have-not Hie proper feeling Q { motherhood," he said, "and do not show the regard for their children which one ttculd. expect." Dr McKenzie hoped that the position would be 1-eveiwed bccaus- in such times as the present the countrv wanted every child it could get, and some of the children under the Board's ear.; would, if properly treated, makp fine citizens. Eventually the Board decided to leave 'he matter in the hards of the Charii able Aid Committee to go into.