DISTRESSING DESTITUTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3047, 18 November 1908, Page 6

DISTRESSING DESTITUTION.

A PALMERSTON CASE

Six children were brought before Mr Thomson, S.M., at Palmerston North yesterday, on an application for committal to an industrial school. Constable Gray stated that he visited the house where the children ,'ived last week for the purpose of obtaining possession of it for the landlord. He found an almost indescribable 'state of things. There was absolutely no furniture but a chair and an apology for a table. There was no bed and no bedding. The family of eight slept on the floor on which was laid a quantity of tattered garments and a piece of blanket. The constable said the house was in an indescribably filthy condition. He considered that the case was one for urgent treatment by the magistrate. The mother occasionally went out ?nd did laundry work, but the father himself was described as a man who drank and did vevy little work. The mother pleaded to be allowed to keep her children, and stated she was about to start a laundry. The magistrate adjourned the case for four weeks to enable her to make an effort to remedy mattei'3. In the meantime a prohibition order was granted against the father.