WALTHAM ORPHANAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7938, 11 January 1906, Page 5

WALTHAM ORPHANAGE.

THE ENQUIRY. OHRISTOHUROH, January 10. The Waltham Orphanage enquiry was resumed to-day. Evidence was given in the direction showing that there had been serious neglect of some of the children, and that the dieiary was inadequate. George Scott, ex-member of the Charitable Aid Board, deposed that the children were inadequately fed. Their staple diet for breakfast was bread and dripping, and they had only recently been granted milk with their porridge.' The matron and assistants sat at the same table and partook of delicacies supplied by the ■ Board. The system of silence in vogue was also objected to. He stated that as a punishment one child had been forbidden to SDeak to the other children for months. He also alleged that on one ocoasion when a child was ill and unable to eat it was subjected to "stomach trouble." On another occasion a girl was strapped and held down and thrashed. A boy with one leg had bis hand so badly bruised with thrashing that it had to be dressed. One girl was forced to sleep in a wash-house and another was looked up for a fortnight. Another girl had Been strapped black and blue and called an opprobious] name by the matron. Two Roman Catholic children had been jeered at on Whit Sunday by the matron ( and otherwise illtreated. The matron called them «d—-d children" and "little devils." She frightened them with stories of "Spring-heel Jack," and also dressed them like guys on Sunday. W. W. Tanner gave evidence that one girl was allowed to sink into a state of exhaustion, amounting almost to collapse, before a doctor was called. Mrs Peacuey gave evidence as to complaints made to her by various children. Witness saw the matron hit one boy on the head, knocking him down. "Silence punishment" was chiefly used in the orphanage. She believed one girl was more a little slave than anything else. The Christmas before last Mrs Carpenter told witness she had given a girl "a h 1 of a time. ! ' Sister Mary, a visitor at the Orphanage when it was carried on at Lyttelton, deposed that the children always seemed well-cared-for. Gertie Andrews, an inmate, deposed that once she was not allowed to speak for a week as a punishment for talking, and another girl was put on silence for a month. The enquiry has been adjourned till to-morrow.