AN INDIGENT PERSON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3723, 30 January 1891, Page 2

AN INDIGENT PERSON.

E<ro Charity is Administered. I An indigent individual named John Neill was arrested in Masfcerton yesterday on the information of Sergeant Price for having no visible lawful means of support. It appears that Mrs Neill ami her young family of four are raceivmg charitable . aid from the local Benevolent Society. For the past eighteen months Neill has done absolutely nothing. He was engaged for a few M'eeks as a cook, bat what little money he earned in that capacity was spent by himself. He loiters about the home of his wife, eating the food provided by the Benevolent Society for his family, and is a complete nuisance At ten o'clock yesterday morning, because his wife refused to give him his breakfast in bed, he assaulted her in a most cowardly manner. Mrs Neill prepared herself to give information to the police, when the accused threatened that if she did so he would "cut her throat and the children's too," The threat, however, did not deter Mrs Neill, who communicated with the police, and the accused was subsequently arrested as above stated. An application for an prder against the accused was made in the R,M. Cqurt this uiorm'ng.

The accused, on oath, stated that he had been bad in his legs for the past twelve mouths. He could not walk to work. His wife had a bad temper, but was otherwise a good wife. She told him yesterday to go to work, but he replied that he could not. The Beuevolont Society had been dissatisfied with him and forced him to go to the doctor. Doctor Hosking had examined him and found him too weak for work. He had been a cook and had earned wages. His wife had thrown a hammer at him and if it had struck him he would have been killed. Ho did not think she meant it. He told her he could not work. Tire people of Masterton were hard. The papers had done all they could against him. The editor of the Star had called his wife a "grass widow " when she was bad. The people had run him down so that if he went for work he was spat upon and told to clear out. He had been pighteen years in the Wairarapa, and nobody could give him a bad character. If he was let off he would try and get out of the district. He was sorry for what had occurred between himself and wife.

The accused pleaded guilty to having no visible lawful means of support. Sergeant Price stated the accused had done very little for the past eighteen months. Dr Hosking had said the man was fit for work. What he complained of was the man lying in bed till ten o'clock in the morning, and eating the food provided for his family, E. H. Waddington, Secretary to the Benevolent Institution, deposed that he had known the accused for some time. The Benevolent Society had frequently found him work. The man had worked for a few weeks as cook at Sutherland's, but had not to his knowledge done anything since Christmas. Mrs Neill and her children were receiving eleven shillings a week from the Benevolent Society. Sergeant Price deposed that Neill had no lawful means of support. Tli9 Bench granted the application for an order for maintenance, and sentenced the accused to seven days' hard labour in the Wellington Terrace gaol for vagrancy. A very affecting scene occurred after the passing of the sentence, Mrs JNeill bursting into tears, and pleading that her husband might be given another chance. Tho woman was removed from the Court by a constable, and the accused was transferred to the cells.