WIFE BATTERED

Southland Times, Issue 20793, 6 June 1929, Page 11

WIFE BATTERED

HUSBAND VANISHES. AMAZING STORY OF POVERTY. There came to light recently in Perth an amazing story of a man who sold his wife to another man in order to pay the funeral expenses of their dead son. It was a story as strange and as dreadful as any ever recorded in fiction, and disclosed a state of affairs which nobody imagined could exist in modern Australia. Wasted and haggard, with tragedy written in her sorrowful face, a woman brought to the Children’s Court, two young children. One, aged four, was before the Court as a destitute child. The Clerk of the Court told the story. “Four years ago,” he said, “this poor woman was living with her husband and two small children. One of these children — a boy—took ill, and despite the constant attention of the [wverty-stricken parents, he died. There were funeral expenses to be paid and the couple had no money. So, at the suggestion of the husband, he sold his wife to a man named Henry George, whose payment made up the expenses of the dead child. Then began a life of misery and drudgery for the cast-off wife. George gradually crushed from her all the spirit she had once possessed. Then, two years later—the irony of fate—-George committed suicide. For two years the destitute woman struggled along with two children born of the union with George. And now, with the nromise of a situation as a domestic in the country, she desires to have the elder of the two children placed in the care of the State. A nine-year-old girl born of her marriage is being fostered at Btinbury. The father has not been seen or heard of since the sale of his wife, although efforts have been made to trace him.” The Bench listened in silence to this remarkable story of poverty and sacrifice. Those present in the Court were visibly affected. Perhaps sensing the feeling of incredulity the Clerk of the Court called the woman forward. “Is every word of my story true?” he said to her, and she replied quietly, with drooped head: “Yes, it is perfect!}' true.” The woman did not break down. It was obvious that she had been through worse torture. She just sat with her head in her hands and she talked softly to herself. When she was informed by the Bench that the child would be placed in the. care of the State until it. reached the age of 18, she nodded her head. She said that she would like to have her boy back if she could find a home for him. Then she walked listlessly from the Court. History shows that there were many cases of wife selling in the early days in Australia. The practice received its death blow in New South Wales 113 years ago, when Governor Macquarie applied the lash to a man who had sought to dispose of his wife in that way. At Windsor, not far from Sydney, one morning, after due advertisement, a settler, with the woman’s consent, submitted his wife to auction. Amidst great excitement she was sold for £l6. Residents of the district were horrified, and the outcry was such that the Governor was compelled to take action. Fifty lashes was the punishment, meter! out. The woman, too, was punished—imprisoned for three months.