ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1911. WIFE DESERTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 216, 19 September 1911, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1911. WIFE DESERTION.

Wife desertion is a specially cruel and .Bricked offence, notoriously and regrettably prevalent right throughout the Australian States and New Zetland. 'As our readers may remember, Sir John Findlay last year sketchedl out a scheme by which the police authorities of the various States should adopt a system of co-operation, in detecting and punishing those men who are so1 callous and heartless as to i desert their* wives and' families and , leave them to be a charge upon State ' assistance or private benevolence. So far, however, we believe, the negotiations entered into oh this subject with the Australian Governments have not resulted in any -definite understanding as to a mutual and* combined course of action. In' this connection it is interesting to learn that in several of the American States an organised and strenuous effort is being made by charitable societies and social reformers generally to "harden up" the laws dealing with the offence of wife desertion, with the result that more than one State Legislature has considerably increased the severity with which wife j deserters are , treated. The most j notable' of these laudable endeavors! to stamp out a peculiarly mean and despicable crime against society must be credited to the M«ssiachuset"tei»State legislature, which in June last passed a new Act under which wife desertion ceases to\be merely a misdemeanour, iand is classed as an actual crime. In the past, in the United States the, penalty for wife desertion has been sto comparatively slight that a man .who esfcrape^t^rom the State in which he deserted^ his wife was pi^actically immune, for the cost of extraditing him was not justified. These conditions resulted, it is said, in the desertion law. being very largely neglected, as non-support was -much more easily proved in court, and the penalty was tne same as for the much, graver offence. . A .new era, however, is now ushered in, and the lot of the wife deserter, when onoq he is brought to book, is made much.* more unpleasant for that class of rascal. Under fche law which has recently come into force the regular police officers will be able to go wherever the man can be arrested— mutual arrangement, as suggested' here by Sir John Findlay, being provided' for with other States--and bring him back just as he could be bi*ought back for any other crime. As in New Zealand, the conditions existing in Massachusetts previously i to the .passing of this new legislation j acted almost as an incentive to deser- | tion, as;the man knew that in case of. hard1 times' nil he had to do was to I disappear, and someone would look after his wife and family. Members of our own Charitable Aid Boards know full well that this class of mean scoundrel is only too numerous in New Zealand, and they will be interested to learn how the problem is nowbeina; dealt with in America. In the old clays, even when caught, the offender got only a few days in gaol, which, with three square meals a day, was found to be little hardship. But the new Massachusetts law changes all this. While the penalty for non-sup-' port has been, at the maximum, thres months in gaol, or a fine of £5, which was nominally to be paid over to fchp wife, but which was rarely found possible of enforcement, the wife-deserter is now sentenced to a term of hard labor, and for every day he works the sum of two shillings a day has to be paiid over for the support of his wife and family. This daily contribution may not seem very much from a New Zealand point of view, but at least it is something to the good. But there'; is an additional feature about these payments which strikes us as an excellent idea. Not only has desertion been made a crime, but the fines and payments ordered by the court must be paid through the probation officer so that the exact amount may be paid, and the lapses in payment may be known by the court immediataly they occur. The law provides thai the court may make temporary,orders during a continuance of. the case, so that court delays will work no hardship on the wife or family. Previously to the passing of the new law, practically the only thing that the charity organisations could do was to secure aid for the family. They could' not Secure the punishment of the husband. Under the new law the responsibility is placed directly on the man, and by enforced labor he can be made, if found, to help in the support. Another new departure, which deserves the consideration of all who are interested in charitable! aid matters in this country, is made by the new Massachusetts law. In the past J great difficulty has been experienced in getting a deserted wife to go into the witness-box and tell the court what she may have told those engaged in the distribution of charitable aid. But under this new American legislation the wife is compelled to testify as to the exact conditions. No doubt it may seem a harsh thing to compel a woman to give evidence which might have the effect of sending her. husband to gaol; but society must be protected even if suffering be inflicted on the individual, and no mere senti-

ment must be allowed to interfere with the course of justice. We kvr unable to gather from the account of the new Massachusetts law the exact working of the co-operation betwee'i the police authorities of the various States as.to the steps to be taken to bring wife-deserters back to the States where they have left their wives; but apparently there is some such system in force, and it would be well, we think, were the Minister for Justice to secure the fullest official information available on this important point. It is clear that a determined attempt is l row being made in the United Statesi to deal with wife desertion as it deserves to be dealt with, and it is mo-re than possible that some excellent hints which would be of great value in framing new legislation here could be picked up from our American cousins.