A WIFE'S DEBTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 12

A WIFE'S DEBTS.

t HUSBAND'S RESPONSIBILITY.

COURT'S VIEW OF LUXURIES.

The responsibilities of a husband, from a legal point of view, were dealt with by Mr. R. A. Singer at a luncheon of the Ivarangahape Road Business Promotion Society yesterday. " The responsibility of a husband for his wife's debts is a matter that probably touches many of you very closely and possibly very often," ko said. Where a husband and wife were living together tho wife was presumed to have her husband's authority to pledge his credit for necessaries suited to their style of living. An important point was that it was the husband who legally had the right to decide what the standard of living should be. If poor, he might, if he liked, put up an appearance of affluence, or, if wealthy, ho might still desire to live, frugally. However, tho fact that a wife was rich and a husband poor did not of itself absolve the husband from responsibility for his wife's necessaries. The wife's presumed authority to pledge the credit of her husband might bo rebutted if it could bo proved that Bhe had been supplied with an adequate money allowance or with sufficient necessary articles, Mr. Singer added. Her authority could also be nullified by a specific cancellation on tho part of thd husband, or if credit had been given exclusively to tho wife. Examples of what had been considered not necessaries were quoted by Mr. Singer. A litter of Pekinese pups, leather-bound copies of books, jewellery and cut flowers, had all been disqualified. Shampooing was also ruled out by the Court, it being stated that had the necessity been made known to the husband, he might have provided for it. The Court apparently implied that every man should be his wife's masseur, Mr. Singer said.

In thanking Mr. Singer for his address, Mr. M. J. Bennett, president of the society, said he hoped l that on some future occasion the speaker would deal with another question which caused much difficulty—the " Responsibility of Wives."