RIGHTS OF WIVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19986, 30 June 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

RIGHTS OF WIVES.

HUSBANDS AMD ESTATES.

CRUEL WILLS DISCUSSED.

CHANGE "IN LAW URGED. TWO SUPPORTERS IN LORDS.' Should a man be compelled to leave part of his fortune to his wife when he dies ? This question provided the House of Lords recently with an opportunity for an interesting discussion on the rights of women.

Viscount Astor originated tho debate with a motion for the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire whether a change in the English law is necessary. He said he was himself strongly of the opinion that it is. In support of this view ho quoted the following hard cases:

A man with businesses in two towns, one managed by his wife and one by his mistress left both shops to his mistress ana left his wife penniless. A wealthy man left his wife and children for another woman. When he died recently he left £30,000 to his wife and family and ft, 500,000 to the other woman and her children.

A man began in a small way of business. He made a will leaving 35s a week to his wife and the residue of his estate, then small, to other objects. He prospered but forgot to make a new will. When he died after a very happy married life all his wife got was 35s a week and £500,000 went to charity. These cases, Lord Astor argued, showed tho necessity for a change in tho law by which somo tribunal should have a right to vary a will in favour of a wife or children.

A man might think that his wife and children would bo much better off without a lot of money, said "Viscount Haldane, the Socialist leader, and, although that view might not bo popular, it might bo true. Lord Astor had suggested the establishment of a tribunal to decide whether a wife had been properly treated in a •will. Do not make it a tribunal of judges, begged Lord Haldane. I have seen too' much of what goes on in the courts to believe that it can be "well

done by judges. " Advantage of Being Dead." M Hear, hear," said two bishops when Lord Haldane added: "If there is to bo a tribunal set up I would rather set up one composed of the Bench of Bishops, who would do the work much more humanely. The only really effective force in such matters, ho added, was that of public opinion, which forced a man to do what he ought to do for his wife. Lord Buckmaster: I have always regarded one of the advantages of being dead that public opinion ceases to operate, and I do not see how you are going to make it effective on a dead man. Perhaps Lord Haldane has some idea how it can bo done. The speaker said he objected to Lord Astor's proposal because it rested on the assumption that a woman must always be dependent on her husband. It should bo no more a matter of surprise that a woman should set out to earn her own living. Society ought to be so organised that it was no more difficult for her to do so and to support her children when her husband died than it was to-day for tho widower to do the samo after his wife's death.

Lord Hailsham, tho Lord Chancellor, said that the man who deliberately wished to exclude his wife from benefit would find means of doing so whatever the law. The Wife who Runs Away. What, ho asked, about the case—not uncommon among the less wealthy classes to-day—where a wife left her husband for another man—and had children by him, and where tho deserted husband took up with another woman who bore him children, treated him and was a wife to him in all but law ? Under Lord Astor's plan the woman who deserted him would bo able to claim for herself and the children of the other man a share of his money, while the other woman who had been so true to him would be able to retain for herself and his children only a small amount. " I quite agree that wives should be self-supporting," said Viscount Cecil, but ho argued, in reply to Lord Buckmaster, that it would bo very difficult even for a woman who earned her own living before marriage, to do so again after long years devoted to bringing up a family.

He was Lord Astor's only vocal supporter, and after Lord Merrivale, the President of the Divorce Division, had opposed tho motion, it was withdrawn.