DESERTERS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 53, 27 June 1896, Page 2

DESERTERS.

With the wonderful f;icili ties that exist for rapid travelling between the various colonies, the ease with which men can escape from the clutches of the law, together with the premium offered by our Charitable Aid Boards, we have developed a class of heartless deserters whose punishment hitherto has been out of all proportion with the brutality of their crime. Nowadays it seems to be nothing out of the common for a man to desert his wife and children and leave them to the mercies of Government and municipal charity. There is scarcely a liamlet in New Zealand that has not witnessed a cruel desertion of this character, while in the larger towns and cities the fiends who thus ill-treat their unfortunate wives and off-springs are steadily increasing. This phase of our social life Mas touched upon at the meeting of the Municipal Conference lately held in Wellington, and the delegates decided unanimously to urge the Government to endeavor to bring into operation a universal inter-colonial law to treat all wives and children deserters as fugitives. The proposal will meet with the hearty approval of every one, and if the matter can be effected in the manner suggested it will go a long way to suppressing a class of blackguards that urgently require drastic treatment.