Indeed, the element of active ill treatment was not by any means want ing in' the discipline doled out daily to the poor child. There is a decided touch of the " active" in the spectacle of a child tied for hours day after day on the narrow stairs lead ing to a draughty loft, where on a few sacks he stretched him self at the end of his day's experiences, and in a dark and airless corner shivered beneath his half blanket, or sobbed himself to sleep. There is move than a touch of the pathetic in the tale told by the boy's sister, herself a little cripple supported on a crutch. It reads more like a sketch out of Dr. Barnado's '' Night and Day " than an account of child-life in New Zealand. The poor little fellow tied up for hours like some wild beast, and supporting his emaciated frame on bread, potatoes, and water, presents a picture of childish suffering that, for the credit of human nature, we hope is rarely seen in this colony..
