DESERTED IN BACKBLOCKS.

Waikato Times, Volume 84, Issue 13208, 25 June 1915, Page 4

DESERTED IN BACKBLOCKS.

HUSSAND ENL!STS. WIFE'S DISTRESSING STORY. A distressing case came under the notice of the Waikato Patriotic Committee to-day, when a married woman living in a back district of the King Country complained that her husband had joined the Expeditionary Force, leaving her with five young children, the eldest of whom was only nine years. Before going he gave her £l, and this was all she had received from him. Creditors were pressing her fgr amounts totalling £4O, while her condition would shortly entail the engagement of a nurse. She asked the committee to have her husband sent back to look after his family, as there were plenty of single men anxious to get away. Living so far back made food very dear, and she did not know what she was going to do. The chairman (Mr A. E. Manning) said he had made representations to the group commander on the case, and the husband had assigned his wife Is a day from his pay*. This the wife, while grateful for small mercies, considered insufficient to keep herself and children, especially under the circumstances, and with a large amount of back rent owing. The question was, should this man be brought back. It seemed to him that a man who would leave his wife and family under such circumtsances was better away. It looked as though he was a blackguard who had taken up a back section and was afraid to face his responsibilities.. It was decided to make fuller inquires into the case.