“ THE CHILDREN ARE STARVING.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3249, 20 June 1911, Page 6

“ THE CHILDREN ARE STARVING.”

TALE OF DOMESTIC DISCORD

A WIFE’S SAD STORY

(.PEE. PRESS ASSOCIATION.J DUNEDIN, June 19. “The children are starving and there is no furniture in the house,” said a wife in the Police Court this morning when she applied for a separation order against her husband, Wm. Newton. Jane Eliza Newton, the wife, said there were four children, all half starved. They had no furniture, only a wooden bedstead and one chair. Some cooking utensils were given them. Defendant had not provided them! with food or clothing, and the children had gone to school without breakfast. They had cried with hunger, and she had seen them eat raw cabbage and raw sago. The husband had kicked and struck her, bruising her and bleeding her mouth, and very often he had thrown the only chair they had at. her breaking it. He had thrown lots of other things at her, and he had held a razor over her throat, with the children crying round.. He also used most filthy language, in the presence of the children. She liad gone out to work and had been ill-treated when she returned home at night. Defendant would not. work. Fl© had also ill-treated the children. Witness denied that the trouble was caused through a man named Preston. She said she. had run to his house for protection when defendant threatened her with tlie razor. Evidence was also given by Harold Newton, Sergeant Emmerson, Constable Herd, Wm. Barrand, and Euphemia Neverson, and the defence contended that the whole trouble had been caused through Preston and defendant’s wife. When Newton canie back from Duntroon, where he had been working, he caught Preston in the house, and gave him a hiding. Defendant said lie was prepared to maintain his -wife if she would keep away from Preston. Tho children, lie said - , were half starved because liis wife was’too lazy to cook for them. A separation order was granted, defendant to pay £1 per week for maintenance and bis wife to have the custody of the children. , On a charge of assaulting Preston, Newton, was fined £1 with costs £1 Is.