Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1891. Poor Girl.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 28 February 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1891. Poor Girl.

♦- Is there not something wrong in our laws that compel the weak to suffer, and allows the strong to get safely away ? A harrowing case has been reported, where a young girl was delivered of an illegitimate child, and has been found, with her old mother, guilty of its murder. We do not contend that the jury have not arrived at a true verdict, as it seems a i clearly proved case ; but what we do not know, but what it is pertinent to inquire, is, how in the first place the young girl was permitted to err, and then why were her circumstances so desperate as to have induced, herself and mother, to perpetrate such an awful deed. We are all well aware that two must do wrong before a woman suffers, yet the world is ever ready to curse the girl, and to whitewash the man. This girl, whose piercing shrieLs, startles the Court, on sentence being passed on her, is

not the first who has been brought to a murderer's grave from the selfish act of a dishonourable man, but each new victim should lend force to the argument, that where two do wrong, both should share the punishment. In the case mentioned, the father of that murdered baby was not present, nor named, and he escapes scott free, unless his conscience is strong enough to sting him, which is doubtful, seeing it was not strong enough to make him do bis duty at the time the girl, he professed to love, was being hunted to conviction. We hold that in all such cases of immorality, the girl is the one who suffers vastly more than the man. She lofces her good name. She has also to bear the pain. He escapes all this. When the child is born the law allows him to rid himself of all inconveniences for a trifling weekly payment, supposed to be sufficient to support the child, yet the mother has to do her part towards it, and to keep herself. This seems manifestly unfair. The woman is much the more heavily handicapped. By lies, or other false measures, the man frequently secures his victim, and then flees beyond reach of the law, thus leaving the woman to reproach and alone. In the Christchurch case, the parents have been to blame, there having been no proper oversight over the daughter, and the girl, by her act, has engulped the mother in her ruin. This fearful picture is placed before us, and we are calmly to lay the whole guilt and punishment upon this poor girl's shoulders, and yet we pride ourselves on our fair laws ! Immorality will never be effaced, but where a woman has a child by a man who is not her husband, his name ought to be as publicly declared as hers, and he ought by law, to have as great responsibilities to the woman, and to the child, as if he were her lawful husband. If such responsibilities were thrown upon men, it would make them vastly more circumspect in their conduct.