CRUELTY TO CHILDREN.

Waikato Times, Volume 2656, Issue 2656, 20 July 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

CRUELTY TO CHILDREN.

Tiie fact that out of 1000 oases taken up during the last five years by the London Socioty for tbe Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the courts were only competent to deal with 150, illustrates strikingly the need for fresh legislation. Somo of these instances, though by no means the most (.hocking, may be quoted. In most of them it is noticed that those responsible for acvs which, if not technically unlawful, were as wicked and inhuman as can well be conceived, wore not poor people, but ofton persons possessed of comfortable means of subsistence. Oases of quite young children tortured to madness by being shut up for days by themselves, sometimes without food and fire, are very common. On one occasion two boys, of 5 and 7 respectively, were found locked up in a bedroom, where they had lived for eight days, with potatoes, bread and water as their only food. One of them was almost insane with terror, and their condition and that of the room is described as horrible. Legally, however, the food and lodging provided were adequate. Again, a wretched child of 6 —a stepson—was virtually imprisoned in a wash house. Thousrh there were plenty of beds in his father's house, he had to sleep on a stone floor. Here again, notwithstanding that the neighbors were aware of the facts, they had no right to interfere, or to bring the boy any help or comfort. Another form of illtreatment which goes entirely unpunished is that occasioned by parents when they frighten children from their homes and shut them out at night. Still tnoro abominable are the cases in which persons pecuniarily interested in the deaths of infants deliberately attempt to kill them by starvation and cruel usage. Plenty of instances ean be given where the deaths of children insured" in clubs have been obvionsiy hastened by neglect ; but as the evidence would not support a charge of manslaughter no steps could bo taken to prosecute. At the present time it is, speaking generally, impossible to rescue their offspring from parents utterly carelcss, brumal and drunken till thoy have injured them irretrievably. For example, a drunken pair were seen reeling through the streets, every now and then passing a wretched baby from one to the other. A policeman, thinking they would do it an injury followed them but he was powerless to act till it was flung on the stone pavement. After the child's arm had been broken and it had been otherwise injured he arrested the man for assault. The fact that the court cannot transfer the custody ;of the alleged victim of cruelty to some person other than the accused, pending trial, is a very grave impediment to justice. Again, there is no power of search though it may be known that cruelty is being practised. One out of the many cases in which the society's officers illegally entered a house and discovered offences for which the perpetrators were heavily sentenced may bo mentioned. In a private house, belonging to a vetinary surgeon, a child of !) was found confined in an upper room. She had been tortured by burning with redhot irons in a manner too revolting to describe ; but her rescue was only effected by an act contrary to the strict letter of the law.— Standard.