A DEPLORABLE CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1916, Page 2

A DEPLORABLE CASE.

LIVING IN A HOVEL. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, June 9. , A deplorable case, which made one doubt the wisdom of the admonition to '|kecp the cradle full" was before the Juvenile Court at Dunedin the other day. when a mother and six poorly-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 with a sheet of iron, and the whole premises were in a disgustingly dirty condition. The husband went away three week's ago, and the wife was unaware of his whereabouts. She pleaded to be allowed to keep three of the children for "company at night," but his Worship committed the whole five (one ofjfhom was partly deaf and dumb) to Cavcrs'ham Industrial School, leaving the mother to make representation to the Education Department with regard to the three she 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 tier £1 occasionally whenever she (the daughter) did not want it."