CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. A Wife-Beating Cure.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 260, 24 June 1905, Page 6

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. A Wife-Beating Cure.

" TVRUNKEN men cannot go I J home and batter their wives, and then make drmk the excuse." But they can, MiKettle. In fact, Mr. Kettle, who dealt with the Auckland case of wife-beating, gave the required permission to the wife-beater by convicting him and sending him about his business It reminds us of the man who> receives a good hard thump in. the eye, and remarks to the hitter • "If you'll kindly bang me in the other eye I'll positively strike you,|so there!" Now, the Auckland magistiate didn't send the wife-beater to gaol, because *if he had the said wifebeater's wife and family would get the worst of the deal, "but if you come before me again for ill-treating your wife, don't expect any mercy from me " The magistrate might have put it clearer "You won tbe gaoled this time, because your wife and children will not get the benefit of your wages. But, being at liberty, you can go* and beat your wife again, m which case I shall gaol you, thus punishing your wife more severely than I punish you " Which is extraordinary logic. The old supposition that m law every dog is entitled to> one bite is extended to the human animal, who id clearly entitled to beat his wife once without fear of punishment The State doesn't gaol the defaulter or the wife-beater, and make him work to keep the family, and it has never given the wif e-beater a taste of the treatment he metes out to those unable to defend themselves The man m the case under review pleaded drunkenness as an excuse for his brutality, and, although the excuse was not accepted m mitigation of the offence, the magistrate didn t punish him, and didn't even say that, although the law would not allow it, he would have liked the State to do a little husband-beating The man who' hits something that cannot hit back is likely to think twice before he uses his advantages if he knows) that the State will hit him with a cat-o '-nine- tails And the lash is the correct medicine for those who use brutal means There may be a time in the golden future when the drunkard and wife-beater shall work m the public streets under police supervision, and the money he earns during his sentence go towards the maintenance of his wife and children. ♦ ♦ • A man with brutal instincts who is allowed to go scot-free isn't likely to feel kindly disposed to a wife who has charged him with wife-beating

Also, the wife would possibly be very loth to chaige him with the offence again, seeing that, as the Auckland magistrate put it, the punishment to the wife "and family was greater than to the culpiit. On the showing of the Auckland magistrate, the woman who was beaten — seeing she had to stand the greater punishment —should have been charged with being wilfully maltreated by her husband, and the wife and family saoled That is a natural deducO tion to the legal logic.