DESERTED WIVES.

Free Lance, Volume X, Issue 499, 22 January 1910, Page 6

DESERTED WIVES.

A Common =sense Proposal. THE.• "deserted wife" question is one which, appeals strongly to most people. Not that most husband® have deserted their wives, nor that. we would suggest that no married woman knows how. soon her lord may clear out. To hint at such a thing would he to gravely reflect on the honourable estate of matrimony, and to lib el each of the sexes. There are two* aspects of interest for the average man on the "dese/rted wife" question. One is its ethical aspect— the view-point of common humianity, which resents. any outrage of humanitarian principles. The other is the practical aspect. When one' man deserts his wife, the other man, indirectly, has to pay. ' * 1 ' *• * So the common interest in- the question is- a very real interest. Consequently, most people in the-community .. were highly pleased to. read that the •Hon. Dr. Findlay, /Minister of Justice, has, during the. past few days, foreshadowed legislation upon the matter of wife desertion. The proposal to< legislate is full of sound comimon-sense, and if the legislation' is strongly and efficiently administered, it should have a reformative, as well as a deterring, effect. ; The trouble in the past ha® been, of course, that when, a man got tired of his wife and family he has just packed a handy-sized box with a few of his own personal belongings and "skipped 'to the other side." That might mean Australia or Timbuctoo. But, wherever his fancy might, happen to take him,, he could turn around and snap his fingers at his wife and family, and at the 'grocer, baker, coal merchant, or whoever were undertaking, his responsibilities of keeping the family from starvation. -Often enough deserted wives have known the whereabouts of their husbands in Australia, and have gone to the police to state their grievances. But they've got no "forrarder" in their trouble. The. difficulty has been that women could hot have their defaulting husbands brought back except on guary anteeinig the police, expenses amounting to £20. This, of course, was out of the question in the case of the very poor, those who may have- had a few pounds kept by for a rainy day have generally spent all that in the

waiting time whilst they gave* their erring husbands a chance to niake good and oooxue back home. But most of the deserted ones, as far as Wellington has been concerned in the matter, have found their way to the Benevolent Trustees' Board. That's where the case has beigun to • hit the manoffi the street. He pays his way., keeps his own. wife and little brood in oomfoirt—generally burden enough these times, no> matter how cheerfully undertaken—and then, through the Charitable Aid Board, helps to> keep the family of his unprincipled neighbour. * * * The reason why the bringing back of an. absconding bread-wunper 'from Australia was expensive has been, that the police here required a guarantee of the expenses incurred in making enquiries in Australia, and in sending over a man to bring the desertier back. It is 'along tlhe line of ameetinig the extradition of. absconders that the proposed legislation, will move, and it will be heartily welcomed and approved by the public. We hope to see some scheme of legislation brought in whereby the husband who is "gaoled" for his misdemeanours tmay be able by his labour in prison to contribute towards the support of his family, who, during his inca.rceratioini, either become a charge on our charities. or suffer great hardships. But, forc the present, this coiming dispensation is a matter for congratulation.