A WIFE DESERTER.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 283, 15 November 1923, Page 5

A WIFE DESERTER.

ADMISSION TO PROBATION.

REINFORCEMENT OF MAINTENCE ORDER.

(Our Own Correspondent.)

Wellington, Nov. 15. A new and effective (form of punishment for wife deserters has been introduced in Wellington. It was suggested by Mr C. A. L. Treadwell in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when appearing for the wife of a labourer named George Ernest Singleton, who had failed to dischcarge the obligations prescribed in a maintenance order. “The amount in arrears is about £150,” declared Mr Treadwell. “As soOn as the order was made he cleared out under another name and has not contributed a penny towards the support of his wife. The police have chased him all over country. He has been a blackguard to her for years and the only way to keep a check on him is to admit him to probation. It is a particularly bad case and if the suggeestion is adopted it should be a salutary lesson to this man and to other wife-deserters. ’ ’ Mr J. O’Donovan, w r ho represented the accused, said that the picture had been painted a good deal blacker than it was. Accused admitted the amount in arrear, but said that during the past eighteen months his average earnings at a sawmill at Otape, near Masterton, were only £1 5s a week. The winter had been bad and accused had been in ill-health. He was prepared to pay his wife £lO down and maintenance at the rate of 10s per week during the summer.

The matter was adjourned until this morning, and when the case was mentioned then the Magistrate, Mr Page, said that he proposed to adopt counsel’s suggestion and. admit accused to probation for two years on the usual terms. The Bench made a condition that the man pay his wife £lO within a week and maintenance thereafter at th© rate of £2 a week during the summer months and £1 12s 6d during the winter.