BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF A CHILD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1785, 4 September 1888, Page 4

BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF A CHILD.

A horrible case of Chinese barbarity was brought under the notice of the Melbourne police by a woman residing in Little Bourke street- According to her statement a Chinese cabinetmaker, named Sam Pak, and his wife, were slowly torturing to death their adopted daughter, a child barely six years of age. Sam Pak and his wife, who is also a Chinese, have no children of their own, and adopted the girl in question, paying her father, a hangeron at the Chinese gaming tables, a slight consideration for parting with her. After a time their affection waned, and thenceforward the girl was subjected to a systematic course of illtreatment. The child’s shrieks attracted the attention of the neighbours. It is stated by the English women occupying the adjoining tenements that it was customary for the woman Sam Pak to tie the child up to a post in the yard, and then belabour her naked body with a clothes prop. Another practice was to roll up hard balls of Chinese paper, light them, and hold them against the unfortunate girl’s breast, and under her arms, afterwards sluicing her down with buckets of cold water. In consequence of these statements the woman was arrested, and the child taken to the Melbourne Hospital, where an examination by Dr Crowther proved that it had been the victim of terrible illusage. The whole body was covered with bruises, some old, some of recent date, and the upper part of the arms a mass of putrescent sores. The child has been sent to the Industrial school, and the woman has been admitted to bail awaiting the hearing of the case. ■■r.at i wwimmihw———a—w———