A Darling Creature

Evening Star, Issue 8613, 5 September 1891, Page 4

A Darling Creature

The stage witticism that man and wife are one and sometimes one too many received the confirmation of fact in the Victorian Legislative Assembly the other day. Dr Pearson asked the Attorney-General why a man named Todd, who had been committed to gaol for refusing to maintain his wife, had been released by the Governor on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice. Mr Shiels for the first time had a domestic difference in hand, ia which the wronged one was not the wife. He said that Todd had offered his wife a home, to which she refused to go; that he had on different occasions spent altogether three years in gaol for not maintaining bis wife ; that if he were kept in gaol be could not be expected to make an effort in that direction; that the Minister of Justice thought he had been sufficiently punished, and did not propose that he should be kept in prison until the end of his days. Moreover, confidential reports of the police officers showed that Mrs Todd was unworthy of sympathy. She was able to earn her living, so the record ran, and before her marriage was the “Mias M‘Kee of Yarra Bend fame." Members versed in asylum scandals immediately recognised her. Then Mr Shitls read letters written by her to the late Premier, the late Chief Secretary, and Mr Panton, in which were some burning sentences. The favorite remark was to this effect“ If that scoundrel, my husband, is liberated, by heavens I'll shoot him dead." Mr Shiels relied upon the declaration of that intention for justification of the opinion that Mrs Todd was unworthy of sympathy, The prevalent feeling was one of wonder that Todd should be unhappy—in gaol,