THE "CAT” WANTED.

Evening Star, Issue 3671, 27 November 1874, Page 3

THE "CAT” WANTED.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, on two consecutive days last week, no fewer than six cases of womanbeating were brought under the notice of the Bench. Of these six, five were cases of wife beating, and therefore cases in which each defendant wag bound by ties additional to those of simpje manhood, to abstain from the cruelty with which he was charged. The fact is of a startling nature ; the more so as that six cases should have come to the light implies the existence of a very large number of which the public hears nothing. For it is well known that the police experience very great difficulty in getting the illused wife or woman to prosecute. The first and obvious remedy is that the punishment administered by the Court shall be adequate to the offence. The merely requiring the defendant to find sureties for his good behaviour for six months—the coarse commonly adopted by the magistrates—is no punishment at all. Take the case of Jamea Lutton, for instance, and consider how insufficient was the sentence of the Court for such an offence as his. He was convicted of treating his wife in a most brutal manner. According to the police report, .“when she was lying ill in bed he seized her by the hair of the head, threw h-r on the floor, grasped her throat with his hands, threatened to choke her until her tongue hung out, Baying, at the same time, ‘Die, you b had, besides, frequently ill-used the children. And the punishment which this specimen of manhood received, for conduct which is separated from the murderous only by a paper wall, was that he should find two sureties of L 25 each, and he hound himself in the sum of LSO, that he would keep the peace towards the unfortunate woman to whom he is married for six months. A milk-and-water sentence like this will not restrain such brutal natures as James Lutton’s. We hope that for the future in every instance where a charge of brutal assault upon a woman is clearly proved, .the magistrate will make a point of swarding the severest punishment pjtfjawifillowp, And w« strongly urge such

a^. atn . en(^me nt of the law as will allow a whipping to be inflicted We have great faith in the ‘ ‘ cat ” in dealing with cases of this hind. Experience proves that no mode of punishment is so much dreaded and so certain to be effective.— * Press.’