ILL-TREATING A CHILD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2669, 20 August 1889, Page 2

ILL-TREATING A CHILD.

THE CHARGK AC A INST THE ABBOTT'S. (BT TEL KG UAPir. —I*K ESS ASSOCIATION*). Chmstuhukcii, Monday. At the Police Court tho man Abbott and his wife, charged with ill-treating and starving tho child Esther l'owdrick, were brought up. Esther Powdriek stated she had been constantly maltreated and starved, and had been keptasmnch as three days without food as a punishment for not getting on quickly with her work in the morning. The work consisted of nursing the children, scrubbing, washing and cleaning the stove, and her tood was generally wheaten meal sometimes with milk, but often without. She had never had bread and butter, vegetables, pndding or meat. Was kept without food, Mrs Abbot tied her up sometimes twice a week in a locked room, while Abbot, who knew nothing of this was away at work. She was beaten nearly every day by Mrs Abbott with a slick for being slow at work. It appears that Abbott, himself, never i 1! treated the child, but once threatened her, "If ho once lifted his hand to her she would never complain again " ; also he knew of some of the food on which she lived, though ignorant of the beatings and tieing up. In trying to tell the story of how she made her escape to some neighbours, named Wyatt, to obtain food after three days' starvation, the child became dazed, and when describing how the woman Abbott, on her return, plunged her head into a bucket of water and kept her there, she burst out crying. This piece of cruelty also took place during the absence of Abbott, and he was also out of the way, according to the child, when his wife pulled hands full of hair off her scalp, Cross-examination did little to shake her evidence. Mrs Wyatt's daughter said the girl had gone to her for food'. She was thin and starved. She took her back, and heard. .Mrs Abbott's scolding, and saying the child ought to bo scourged and burnt for running away and telling lies to witness.