A DISTRESSING CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1876, 9 April 1889, Page 3

A DISTRESSING CASE.

On Wednesday morning the attention of the Eangiora police was drawn to a woman named Mrs Isabella Mawha, relict of Mr Matthew Mawha, of Saltwater Creek, who was living on 35 acres of laud, thereupon which is a six-roomed house. She had been the only occupant of the place for about nine years, since her husband’s decease, and has invariably refused to have any communications with her neighbors. Constable Costin, who went out, found that the woman was existing in a condition of extreme wretchedness, filth and dirt. Mrs Cameron, who had heard of her state, had been in to put matters a little tidy, but Mrs Mawha had reduced her stock of furniture to only a stretcher and an unwholesome pallet, upon which she lay, almost reduced to helplessness, The wood lining of the house had been broken up for firing, as well as part of a staircase, fcffie had bread—of a kind-which was unfit to eat, and had apparently been living for some time upon flour, of which there was a small stock ;' this wetted and baked into cakes in the ashes had formed the chief of her diet. On the couch was a blanket, beneath which was a large supply of wax matches, whilst the woman’s dress consisted of a blanket sewn about her. To the officer she positively declined to give any account of herself, or admit that she was in need of attention or comforts, but observed her only visitors were the fairies and Mrs Cameron, and next day Constables Cartmill and Costin had her conveyed to Kaiapoi. Here Mrs Mawha was examined by Drs Murray and Parsons, who certified to her morose and unfortunate condition, and on the order of C, Hansen and J. H. Wilson, Esqs., J.P.’s, she was committed to be kindly taken care of at the Sunnyside Asylum in the hope of a recovery. —Press.