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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7515, 19 December 1885, Page 4

The case of Woodward versus Woodward, which came before the RM. Court yesterday, presented some rather peculiar featuroa. It shows with what dangerous facility a protection order under the Married Women's Property Act might be obtained. This much was admitted by the Magistrate, who, in refusing to reverse the order, said that if the evidence which had been adduced that afternoon had been brought forward at the original hearing he would not have made the order ; which is tantamount to allowing that the order had been granted on slender and insufficient grounds. It would appear that protection had been applied for in 1834 on account of the alleged tendency of the husband to squander the joint earnings of himself and his wife. The evidence, however, went to show, that whatever truth there might be in the allegation, the husband had managed to accumulate considerable property, and it seems that by virtue of the order the whole of this has come under the control of his wife, so that he can derive no benefit therefrom, except at her pleasure. It appears too that the husband had upon very insufficient | evidence been committed to the Asylum, and that after his discharge he became an inmate of the Old Men's Refuge ; and the object of the application for a reversal of the protection order obtained by the wife was to enable the husband to recover possession of his property. On the evidence adduced it is difficult to see how the Court could refuse the application. The reason assigned for refusal, that the Magistrate could see no good , that could follow the reversal of the order, is to say the least peculiar. It was ciearly the duty of the Court to be guided by the evidence, and if it were such as would have prevented the order from being granted, then it ought to have sufficed for its reversal. It may be true, as the Magistrate said, that according to the Act which came into force this year, all tHe property that ought to have been the wife's would have been hers still; and all that ought not to have been included in the order would be the husband's. This, however, does not affect the principle thai, if a wrong had been done by the making of the order, it ought to hare been remedied by granting the application for its reversal. The Act referred to as having come into force this year could then have been left to its own operation. The effect of the decision is that the man Woodward is meantime cast as a pauper upon the community, as he ha 3 been for the past year, despite the fact elicited in evidence that there is property belonging to him sufficient for his maintenance.