"Lazy Husbands Law."

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 May 1914, Page 2

"Lazy Husbands Law."

WORK FOR MEN AND WAGES

FOR WIVES

By a new law which came into I force recently, Seattle, Washington, ■ has become the Paradise of neg- ! lected wives, or those burdened with : lazy husbands, for the lazy ones \ will be compelled henceforth to ; work, and earn money for the support of their families. Under the ' law, which is locally known as "the ; lazy husbands law," men convicted ] of incorrigible laziness, or of aban- ; doning their wives and families, will ' be set to work clearing a tract of 6f> acres at Mallard, a suburb of Seattle, and their wives will be paid (ss. 3d. per day. The lazy ones themselves get nothing except ordi- ' nary prison-food and clothing. The tract of land, which is surrounded by a big stockade and guarded by warders, is rocky ami thickly-wooded, and the prisoners have to chop down trees and generally clear the tract. On the very day the Act came into force the County • Commissioners were besieged by the wives of a number of h t /. v husbands now in the county prison under the old laws, who wore anxious to learn whether Die law was retrospective. The Commissioners {declared that they would have to take legal advice on the matter.