A WIFE NOT THE MASTER.

Putaruru Press, Volume VIII, Issue 328, 6 March 1930, Page 7

A WIFE NOT THE MASTER.

The question of ? husband’s right to choose the place where the home should be was raised recently at Bow County Court, London, when Mrs Dorothy Ellen Ball, of London Road, Plaistow, E., sued her husband, Albert Samuel Ball, of Hill \ lew Gardens, Colindale, Hendon, N.W. She sought to recover £l3 ss, the value of goods which she alleged belonged to her. Mrs Ball said that her husband worked at Colindale, which was 17 miles from where she lived, and he had been in lodgings. One day he came home and said he had found a house for them. This greatly upset her, and then she received a letter addressed just “ Dolly, going to remove goods to the above address; will tell the gas man.” He did remove the goods. She had told him that she would not go right up there. Judge Bairstow: There was no separation, and her husband took these goods to a place near his work. Even in these days of female emancipation a wife has no right to refuse a home when her husband offers it to her. She has no right to split up a home to go to a separate establishment. Mr Duthie (for Mrs Bali): The wife is entitled to her furniture. Judge Bairstow: I entirely disagree. lie has not taken it away. He has moved the goods to where he has provided a home, and I am prepared to rule that he is entitled to detain them for their joint home. He has never claimed them as his own property, and he has a right to move where his work is. Mr Duthie: You are making the husband the absolute master ! Judge Bairstow: I am not, but I am making sure the wife is not the absolute master. This is a disgraceful action, and rises out of the refusal of the wife to live with her husband, as she wants to live with her mother. There will be judgment for the husband.