THE DESERTED WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 13

THE DESERTED WIFE.

POSITION IN WELLINGTON. A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. The plight of the deserted wife constitutes a big problem, and it is sufficiently acute in Wellington to engage a great deal of the time and attention of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. Discussing the question, Miss C. Kirk, secretary of the society, stated that there were many cases of deserted wives in Wellington—far more than there should be—no fewer than 15 fresh cases having been reported since January of the present year. " In these cases it is always the children who suffer," said Miss Kirk, "and of course other social problems arise out of the desertion. " A woman is left with two' young childfen. She cannot do much in the way oi going to work, and some man who is kind to her comes along and invariably it iis not long before you have a social difficulty there. Such conduct does not excuse the woman, but it .does ! explain a lot. "I am bound to . say for the average deserted wife that she pats up a good fiizht for a start—in- some cases for; several years —but very often she contracts an alliance .which is not .approved by, ■ shall I say, the ethics of social convention. "These poor women are more to be ' pitied than blamed. "We do all we can to help, and if the husband is an impossible man for the* woman to live with we endeavour to induce "the wife to secure a divorce and marry the man who has befriended her if it is possible. Of the fifteen fresh cases reported this year, 12 of the women 1 have married the man with whom they » contracted alliances, and in most of these • cases where the women" have re-married everything has turned out successfully."