"A WOMAN ALL OVER."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 12

"A WOMAN ALL OVER."

DEFENDING HER HUSBAND. MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT. "You are as bad as your husband, if not worse," said Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., yesterday afternoon to Ruby Barber, wife of Owen Barber, after she had given evidence that her husband did not know she was working while he was obtaining sustenance. Barber was charged with making a false statement to the Labour Department in that hefailed to declare any earnings by his wife. The accused pleaded not guilty and was represented by Mr. Robinson. The accused had received over £85 in sustenance and obtained £14 to which he was not entitled. Not only had he failed to declare his wife's earnings, but he had informed an officer of the Department that she was not working. Accused's wife admitted she knew her husband was receiving sustenance while she was working. She worked in a laundry and usually got home before her husband. On the occasions when she did not she made excuses and he did not know she was working. She admitted she had property valued at about £700. Mr. Walker said he could not believe the woman could be working without her husband knowing it. "You were keen, like many women, to make money, but in this case you got it dishonestly and you are as bad as your husband," said the magistrate. "It is a woman all over to defend her husband from gaol when she can do it. It is up to you now to pay back some of your ill-gotten gains by paying your husband's fine, otherwise he will go to gaol." Barber was fined £50 and costs, 10/, in default one months imprisonment.