PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13334, 24 March 1911, Page 2

PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

A SAD RECITAL. At tile annual meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children this after noon, the president (Mrs A. G. Sands! cm) stated that during the year 88 new cases were dealt with, as follows:—Ten cases of ill-used wives, 15 cases of neglected or deserted wives, four cases of ill-used children, 27 cases of neglected children, four cases of children in unsuitable homes, two cases of deficient children, one case of an orphan child, three cases of children placed in St. Saviour’s Horae, five cases of young girls or boys unhappy in their homes, one case of adoption, one case of a girl getting into bad company, five cases of affiliation, five cases of poverty, and five miscellaneous cases. The committee was also in touch with a large number of the 104. cases dealt with.in former years. The president continued; “The cases of ill-n.sed wives aw often sickening iu detail, and loudly call for amendment iu our -marriage laws. The fact that a drunken husband should be able to use the vilest epithets to his wife and rain blows upon her person and treat her iu other ways not fit to mention with, out her having any legal remedy for want of witnesses loudly calls for redress. The legislation introduced by our present Minister of Justice to deal with deserting husbands has our highest commendation. In these cases we advise that, no warrant for the arrest of her husband on the charge of having deserted her should he granted to a wife without her being required to give a surety in her own recognisance that she will appear in court to .prosecute her husband when ho is being tried for having deserted her. But it is when dealing with neglected or ill-used children that our pity is oftencsf stirred to indignation. It is not by any means boardod-out children who suffer most. These are subject to inspection, and any gross cruelty or neglect practised upon them is generally promptly and adequately dealt with. It is the children living in charge of drunken or cruel parents ov adopted parents that ire exposed to tho keenest suffering, and whoso cases arc the most difficult to redress, and it is hero that an amendment of the law is needed. A home for mentally deficient girls on tho same linos as that for hoys at Otekaike is urgently needed.” Mr G. W. Bussell, M.F., referring to the Government subsidy, impressed on the Society that it should look upon it is a windfall, and said that as far as he know there was no prospect of it being repeated. The Kcv. F. Buie, in some remarks advocated the amendment of the law regarding the adoption of children on the lines of the Victorian Act, and the enactment of a probationary law in respect to juvenile offenders.