JUDGE’S REGRET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24835, 7 February 1942, Page 9

JUDGE’S REGRET

RIGHT TO CHASTISE In the Bradford County Court in December Judge Frankland said: “ I regret that an old English custom which gave a husband the right to chastise his wife is not still in operation.” He was giving judgment against a country doctor’s wife, who had ordered a £6O fur coat without her husband’s authority.

The judge, himself a married man, added: “If a certain amount of appropriate chastisement were applied to this lady, there might be a chance for her to live moi'e happily.” He did not believe that the woman, Mrs Marjorie Garscadden, wife of Dr A. V. Garscadden, of Burnley-m-Wharfedale, thought she really needed a fur coat; she already had one. He thought that she bought the coat either to give her husband pain or distress, or with the idea of disposing of it later to provide herself with some ready money. Both Dr and Mrs Garscadden were, sued for £6O. the price of the coat. The case against the doctor was dismissed, and a stay of execution granted for Mrs Garscadden to return the coat, to which she agreed.