The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1887. HUSBAND-BEATING WIVES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1459, 18 January 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1887. HUSBAND-BEATING WIVES.

Certain districts of the Old Country have the disreputable reputation of producing a heavy-booted species of savage, one of whose common amusements is that of beating, kicking and otherwise maltreating the unhappy creature who, being his wife, is of far less consequence m his eyes and has infinitely less of his regard than the ugly bull-pup that follows at his heels. Such unmanly specimens of manhood are often let off vastly too lightly, occasionally getting little more punishment than is awarded for the theft of a turnip, and it is a marvel to us that the legislature has not long ago decreed for them the same treatment which proved so effectual with the garotter — a taste of the lash. Happily, m Australia and New Zealand we have hitherto had little or nothing of this class of offence — though m some other branches of criminality it is to be feared we are not far behind the populations of the older world ; but it will be curious indeed if m these countries where the swans are black, where Christmas falls m midsummer, where the north is the hot quarter and the south the cold, we should carry ,the upside-downishness of our surroundings into our social life and among other things develope the antitype of the wife-beating brute of the pottery districts m the shape of husbandbaating wives. Yet, to judge from what transpired m a police court the other day it would seem that even that is possible, and the place of all others to lead m this disagreeable new departure is alas ! the. empire city. On Friday last, we learn from the Post there were two following cases m which the husband appealed for the protection of the Court as against the not merely strong-minded but strong-handed women who are their respective lawful spouses. In the first case the lady, rejoicing m the classic and aristocratic name of OH via,was represented as having not only indulged m dire threats of arson and murder, but m volley after volley of stones aimed at her spouse with considerable precision, the partner of her joys and sorrows being struck both on the forehead and shoulder. This was not denied by the defence, but it appeared that the parties were both belligerents, it being shown that on a previous occasion the husband had figured as defendant on a charge of assaulting his wife, and was convicted. And, further, that on another she was covered with bruises, ! presumably as the consequence of his violence, as he had admitted having indulged m the pastime of kicking her. Under these circumstances the husband's application for sureties of the peace on the part of the woman was very properly dismissed. But the next was a very much more pronounced case. Here an old fellow who had been married to Harriet, his present wife, for 21 years, complained that she had Atf« dtunk for seventeen years oi the time. Then she had a sober spell ior three years, but had broken out again and proceeded to make things distressingly lively. It seems that sh«, too, like the fair Olivia, had taken to target practice at her husband, though with a much wider range of missiles than that lady had indulged m, having on s recent occasion thrown everything which was on the table at him, commencing' with the teapot and ending with the butter. She had threatened to knock his brains out — complained the poor old chap — and she evidently meant to do it, and might have succeeded had she only been able to throw straighten This highly belligerent (emale was duly bound over to keep the peace, her husband, we presume, being permitted to keep the pieces — of his demolished crockery. Let us hope though, that we may hear no more of this sort of thing from the " hub " of our little universe, or Ccelebs m search of a wife will certainly have to give the Empire city a wide berth.