NINE SLEPT IN ONE ROOM

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20492, 7 May 1938, Page 16 (Supplement)

NINE SLEPT IN ONE ROOM

Miner’s Plea When Charged With Neglecting Children

Stated to be the father of nine children, a Rhondda miner declared from the dock at Ystrad that because he was three days overdue in a monthly Instalment a furnishing company took away part of his furniture, with the result that the whole family had to sleep In one small room. Before the Court was Thomas Roberts, 48, of Gilfach Goch, and he was charged with wilfully neglecting his three youngest children. Inspector John Panniers, of the N.S.P.C.C., stated that when he called at the home he found Mrs Roberts gravely 111 In bed downstairs, and two bedrooms devoid of furniture- In a third bedroom there was one bed, and an improvised bed on the floor. Roberts, his five sons, and three daughters all slept in this room. The endest. son was 24, and the youngest six. The daughters were aged three, eight and eleven.

Roberts pleaded that after working nights in the mine he was forced to do most of the housework. Throughout the day he washed blankets, cleaned the house, prepared the children for school, and cooked food. He could snatch only three hours sleep each day. The stipendiary declared that he dia not wish to separate the hardworking father and the invalid mother from their children. He adjourned the case for a week, and asked the police and probation officer to see if they could devise a scheme to improve the home conditions. Referring to the action of the furnishing company, the stipendiary remarked: “This firm swoops down on this man's house, and even threatens to take away the bed on which a sick woman is lying. It cannot, be too widely known that their action is reprehensible in the last degree."