WOMEN INDIGNANT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 107, 7 May 1924, Page 7

WOMEN INDIGNANT.

FOMNI CASE JUDGMENT. MINISTER INTERVIEWED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 2. i The recent legal decision which deprived Eraelie Polini, the well-known actress, of ber only child, has evoked widespread sympathy from women all over the State, and numerous aptations culminated in a deputation to the Minister of Justice. He was urged to amend the Infants' Custody and Settlement Act of 1880. I The deputation was representative, : including leadinn , members of the Feminist Club. Women Justices' Association. Women Worker*' Union Women's National Association. Enrrlisli Speaking and the Women Wait res=es' T 7 nion. Miss Preston Stanley, of the Feminist Club, rpferrin? to the Polini case, in which the court pave the custody of n younp eirl baby to the father, said the judgment was inhuman, unnatural unjust, and undemocratic. The petition drawn up for urgins a reform ol the law had been signed by ir>.o0 f women. The amendment'" desired were that, in the case of children of tendei asre (up to seven 1, the motliT sho-ilr! b< regarded as the natural guardian, unless the court found asrainst her such im morality aa made her care a danger tc the children. Another amendment de sired was that in those eases when i the mother had to earn her own livin? ! and in order to do so had a botia fid: reason for travelling outside the Stnte ! the fact of her hnvinsr to do so «hoiil< i not operate to rob her of the right o i her child. I (Tn the Polini case there was no surr i gestion of immorality on the part of th actress, but the fact of her havin<r ti travel extensively was one of tin grounds on which the iudee awarded tin custody of the child to the father.) Miss Stanley contended that, as tlr law stood, it jrave rights to the fathe which it did not extend to a marri"( mother, and it remained for the Polin I case to arouse flamins indisrnation. I By other speakers the law was re ' ferret! to as "a remnant of the bar barous lnws of years aero." Miss Ruby Ttich. of the F^nvnis Club, contended that the law as it stooi conduced to immorality. Th" law o human nature ought in itself be sufficient 'ficient to pive the mother the rieht t • her child. Emelie Polini had stat" 1 that if her child had been an illesriti mate she would have had full right t . it. s The Minister promised to sympathetic ally consider their views and to sut Jmit them to Cabinet,