KLEPTOMANIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2465, 28 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

KLEPTOMANIA.

The following is the written statement of Maud Amy Book, ;i larceniwt, road at tlie Supremo Court, TJunoini, on Wedn-s----diiy :—The malady I suffer from n.iiv lun boon upon mo since childhood, and no one but God and myself knows tho fearful horror I have hud to faco year nftor your in tho knowledge tliat, instead of my being , nblo to fight successfully ayair.st it (as I have prayed so often t> do), it has r.ithor overpowered mo more iind more. When I was very yonnsr I romombor going to ;i shop in the town we lived, in, nnd buying a lot of books, etc., Tvithoii* my father's knowledge, and trivinar them away. (You will see for yourself if you look into the case, that nothing I ever got has been for myself. Tho temptation has always been: "Give, give; jiever mind how you get tho things ; you can pay for them by-and-bye.") Well, ■when the account was sent to ray father lie ciune to me and told me never to get anything without first receiving an order from him. He told mo that anything I needed I mist go to him for, and I should have it ; but his saying that onty seemed to increase the desire to get things without his knowing. I did so many times, am) lit last, when his patience was worn out, Jio took me into his room, and told mo of my mother's fate, and said ho feared I showed the same symptoms. He begged mo to fisrht and struggle against this kleptomania for all our sakes. But, it was in vain—it still went on at intervals, though he tried kindness and punishments of every kind. Then he decided to fend me away to a boarding school in Melbourne (a Mrs James', Nicholson-street, Fitzroy). There for soino months I had peace, yet it, suddenly broke out worse than evtr. However, I stayed nearly two years, nnd then my father having had severe losses wo each had to choose our own work and take to it. I, being passionately fond of children, and teaching, chose school work. I studied under Mr R. L. Clements (now head teacher at Naseby). I passed my examination nnd was appointed to a school lit Stradbroke, in Gippsland, Victoria, where I was for two years, and from thsre I was promoted to Maryvale East, about ninety-seven miles fro:n Melbourne, on the railway lino from there to Sale. During those two years, stranare to say, tho old temptation had scarcely vi.-ited mo ; and when it, did the thought of my work, which I really loved, always had the power to check me. But about this time the greatest sorrow of my lifo came to me. I had banome engaged to one whom I had known from childhood, and ho was accidentally Killed, being thrown from his pony. However, I wont to Muryvale, and was there for some years until a school at H:\zclwoud, about soven and a half miles from ours, was made half-time with ours, and I was given charge; of the two. I accepted and did well for some time, but the work was too much for a female, besides having to go backwards and forward"; to the schools in all weathers. One day I got wot through, and, instead of changing my clothes at once, I sat in them for three or four hours. This resulted in an attack of inflammation of r.lie lungs and bronchitis, and having a relapse, the illness lasted four and a half months, during which time I was only once out of my bed. I had to resign, and losing my school seemed to throw ma back altogether. I never got strong, and the old temptation cams hack again. I foil so often that I determined to tell Dr. George Tn.iguc, of Melbourne, all my ease and souk his advice, lie did all he could, and indeed was beneficial to a certain extent; but I went to New South Wales to visit an uncle thurc, and then the malady attacked me again. I got things in his mine and gave them to his children—my cousins. When he found out he was vexed. I told him how it was, and he offered then to placo mo in a private asylum, anl pay forme if I would go ; but I would not. I have regretted it ever since ; but I hoped agunst hope tint I might bu enabled to battle against it. I went to Melbourne again, and there I suffered fearfully through it, and had it not been that I had miiiy influential friends, I should have been in the same position as I am at present. I was far from strong us regards bodily health, and the doctors ordered me away, either to Tasmania or to New Zealand. My father being here he wired for me to come to Auckland, but my stepmother, being very young and knowing the malady I suffered from, never liked me, and tilings were made so miserable for mo that I left home and got a place as governess at Otahuhu. and there the same old thing occurred. I was arrested, but the Magistrates, hnvine p:-oof of my suffering from my mother's disease, decided that I was not respotieible, and discharged me. On my way up the coast from Melbourne to Auckland I had stayed one night with Mr and Mrs Haxtll, of the Empire Hotel, Lyttelton. They were old friends of ours in Victoria. When in Auckland I heard of her death and her wish that, if I had not obtained work in Auckland. I would come as governess to her daughters Eva and Mary. I did so, but had not been long there before I did that which resulted in ,ny being placed in Addington for a month. I knew then I had no chance of fighting against the terrible evil ; it is in my blood, and the only way of my being enabled to prevent myself from being , the cause of misery and iKirrow to all those connected with ma is to write and see if my uncle will do as he offered some yew* nsro—place me in a private asylum, where I perhaps will be treated kindly, and vet never allowed to go our, nlnrin. Mr Tituhenpr stated in his cvHnnce that I wn* livintr with a publican at Lvtteltun. I beg ti> say that it was not. in r,hn way hn would have made it, iipjieir ; but simply as govern««s to his t.\v p d.i tighter ■>. Whatever my life has noon, tliu temptation of bad living such as he inferred, has not been one of mine,

God known I have evil enough to answer fur without that. After leaving Addington I went to Wellington, and \v<\« tbere some time wlion I iiiriim fell. Throuifh the kindness of the Minister of V, Incitiuii, Mr ILiljui!.*, Mr Wiirdell and others— who knew that it wus my mother's malady ayairi showing itself—l was sent to the Industrial School at Cavei-sham, instead of jjnol, and there I was till January List ; and since then I have nyuin fallen many times iu the srirno \v:i<\ 1 know my ain deserves the <ri'oatest severity. Vet, believe me, it has indeed been strna-jrlerl though in viiin. If your Worships will deal iis leniently vdth ino as possible, it Ik all I a<k. It will be bettor for me and all eoncrned Clint 1! should receive a sentence, raid in the meantime I will fret someone to write to my uncle and bear of him to carry out now the offer ho made some time ago, and tlieii when my term is over I may go right aw'iy to the asylum ho know of. It is a private one, and the keeper is a friend of his own; therefore he thought it would lie good for inn, for I would have crrtiiiii priviloifes, and be kepr out of harm's Kay. Dr. JJurns said it is not mucin :>ss. l-'oi' proof [ refer to my father in Auckland ; ?>fr Knight, of Wellington, n , " l . the Nupuriiitendent of l.lie V'arra Lend. J f proof is required of my bein;.' ou«u a teacher in Victoria, Mr 11. L Clements will bo able to furnish that. Besides, Mrs Robert Wilson, of fitreet, perhaps remembjrs me when she was over iu Victoria. Some few year(tiro, while I was at the Maryvnlo school, near Morwell, I was boardinjr with her uncle, Mr John Tlmmpsow. She visited thnii! during that lime. Sfio may pos.-ibly j remember it; but it is hard to get proof here, for I am oomparatu'ely a stranger in Ihiuedin. However, God knows best, and I am unite content to abide by His will : and 1 still hope and pray that Mr- j who only can will, in His own go >'l way Hiid time, fron me from thU terrible diseas' , , which causes mo such mi-cry, and others, too, through me. Only He knows tliP liorror I. have ]i\o:l in fill tlio?o year". j