HUSBANDS AND WIVES

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1929, Page 2

HUSBANDS AND WIVES

DOMESTIC DIFFERENCES. The matrimonial Courts America, officially known as Domestic Relations Courts, seek to compose “kin quarrels” on the assumption that family troubles should be aired in private rather than in public. They are the meetinghouses for errant husbands, aggrieved wives, and tearful children, with a Mildly magistrate in the chair trying to be as little judical as possible. When the Brooklyn Court opened it was freely prophesied that it would soon eo out of business. Instead, it proceeded to enlarge its quarters, and is now an indispensable member in the, community’s life. So writes Mr W. F. Bullock, in the Daily Mail. Women quickly learned that here they would find officials anxious to mend domestic strife without the threat of punishment, although for recalcitrant husbands that weapon is still held in reserve.

Before the advent of there courts wives abandoned by their husbands and legally entiled to support were obliged to appeal for a hearing to the Charity Commissioner. They would be sent back to the Magistrate’s Court in their district conscious that they were looked up >n as city charges, because money obtained from their husbands was doled out bv the Charities Department. In the matrimonial court the husband pays his wife directly.

The ideal of these courts was well expressed by an enthusiastic magistrate, woo presides daily at one of them, when he said: “This tribunal is not constituted for vengeance, spite, or anger, but strives to give calm, intelligent consideration to each case.”

The normal procedure is for the wife to make her desertion. The husband is found by a court probation officer and requested' to come before the magistrate on certain day. If reconciliation is impossible, provision is made for husband and wife to live apart, with due attention to the children. The husband is instructed to give so much from bis weekly wage for the support of bis wife and children.

Six mouths later the case is reconsidered. Should the offending party have refused to submit to the court’s recommendations, the magistrate is empowered to appoint a “probation oversight without conviction.” This means merely that a court officer keeps an eye on the- progress of events and sees that the court’s advice is carried out. If this “oversight” fails of its purpose, “straight probation” is enforced. Here the defendant is placed under bond to fulfil the conditions required by the court. Gaol is the final threat for those who wilfully continue disobedient. An employment bureau is valuable addition to the court’s routine duties. Work is often found -for a husband lacking a job, an invaluable aid when money must be handed over weekly to a family. Probation officers will often devote one night a week of their free time to accommodate paying defendants who cannot come to court during -i.e day. ;

Naturally, the magistrates have plenty of latitude, and the court’s success is bound up with the wisdom and sympathy of its presiding genius. Mrs Jean Norris, New only woman magistrate, rules over one in the heart of the city.

The courts often present, in the words of one magistrate, “scenes of unsneakable sorrow.” But they have their lighter moments, as when an over-wrought magistrate exclaimed angrily the' other day to a neglectful husband. “You will either go back to your wife or take six months.” The man replied: “Sir. I’ll take the six months.”