A poisonous situation

In late August, 1890, three children all from the one family appeared in the Police Court here in Bendigo, having been charged with house breaking into the North Sandhurst State School, stealing property and setting the school building on fire.
It was the two girls, the eldest Catherine and her sister Helena Young, who had specifically been charged with fire setting.
Their little brother, Henry, was also involved in the scheme which had been hatched by his sisters, and he was the one who ultimately confessed to the police investigators about their involvement.
John Francis Young was the 55-year-old widower father of the three children, his wife Kathleen nee Nolan, having passed away 19 months earlier at the age of 33.
Mr Young was employed at Leggo’s Pyrites Works at Jackass Flat, where his weekly wage averaged £1/5 shillings (about $2).
The family lived in a very simple cottage or hut, not far from Bald Hill, near Green Street.
Leggo’s employed Mr Young as a pyrites burner – a job which today would be regarded as lethal.
Pyrites minerals are found in the rocks of Bendigo, and when the ore from gold mining operations was being crushed, it was collected and separated from the gangue, subsequently sold to the treatment works which had the pyrites analysed before submitting a price for its purchase from the mining companies.
Leggo’s was one of a number of pyrites treatment works in Bendigo, the main minerals of economic value in the pyrites was gold and arsenic.
The long brick furnaces with their inbuilt baffles was where most of the arsenic was precipitated and subsequently shovelled out by men like Young into wooden barrels or jute bags.
Mr Young, incidentally, lived until 1896, aged 61.
He had started as a digger on the Bendigo goldfield having at one time lived in a log hut which he constructed in the Whipstick.
Leggo’s had attached to their long reverberatory furnace a series of vertical, cylindrical stacks, the steel being lined with brickwork.
In these too, the
arsenic was collected,
the gases including sulphurous fumes escaped into the atmosphere.
Jane Downes, one of the teachers from the school stated in court that she had locked away needlework belonging to the pupils.
This needlework was later found hidden at the Young house, along with a missing wall clock.
Mr Kirby, who was representing the Youngs in court, suggested that the children be dealt with under the Juvenile Offences Statute.
The police magistrate, Mr Patterson, expressed the view that a very serious charge of arson was levelled at two of the girls.
Inspector O’Flaherty admitted that the overall evidence was not totally conclusive, having only found items belonging to the school and its pupils at the Young’s house.
It was revealed in the court that only a week earlier Helena Young had received a reprimand at Eaglehawk, and that the father had requested the children be sent to the Industrial School, which had a reformatory program.
Mr Patterson was obviously of the same opinion and so the children were sent to the Industrial School.
Mr Young said he was not in a financial position to contribute to their cost at the institution, particularly as there were other children of his still living with him.
Because of insufficient evidence, the charge of arson against Catherine and Helena Young was withdrawn.
Leggo’s metallurgical works at Jackass Flat, its leases, treatment plant, machinery, buildings, equipment and calcined tailings were auctioned off on October 28, 1953.

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