DEFAULTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 153, 19 September 1927, Page 16

DEFAULTERS

WORRIED WIVES KEEP THE MAINTENANCE OFFICER BUSY. OFTEN HE IS A PEACEMAKER LETTERS OF THANKS Defaulting husbands mean trouble for Government officials, and as there are so many of them it means a tremendous amount of trouble. Auckland has about 1,100 defaulting husbands altogether, and somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 if all the defaulters, non-defaulters and those paying the maintenance of illegitimate children are taken into consideration. Think what an immense amount of work is entailed in watching this department! The maintenance officer is a worried man. All day long he has a stream of callers —usually wives with complaints. All day long he is worried by distracted women who seek advice as to what they should do. Some are women of refinement and creditably struggling to live them. Others are lacking ideals and drift with the capricious currents of life without any attempt at control. Therein lies the probable cause of their unhappy condition. * A BIG MAIL The maintenance officer’s mail is an unusually large one. Many women for whom he has acted in the court in enforcing a maintenance order against her husband writes her thanks to the officer. Not only in Auckland are they thankful, but in every town in New Zealand. Often the maintenance officer is able to heal the breach which may mean severed lives. A little kindly advice has often prevented a divorce. But it is all done very quietly and unostentatiously; only the parties concerned ever know what has been done. Then there is the money question. Thousands of wives getting so much a week means a considerable sum. During the first year the Aact came into force £7,400 was paid in at Auckland in the cases dealt with. As the number of defaulting husbands has increased, so has there been a corresponding increase in the money paid to the wives. MANY SUMMONSES About 700 summonses are dealt with by the maintenance officer. In the old days, before the institution of this branch, a wife simply went; to a solicitor and hold him ? that her husband had discontinued maintaining, loving and cherishing her, and a summons was issued. The solicitor did all the work for the usual fees, which threw an extra financial burden upon the complainant or defendant. But now most of the work falls on the maintenance officer, who has a summons or a warrant issued, as required. t There are times when a man is charged with failing to maintain his wife, and when he is brought before the Court his usual excuse is that he is earning only enough to keep himself. An examination invariably shows that 'he is earning much more, sometimes as much as £ 7 and £ 8 a week. Few men escape the combined efforts of the maintenance officer and the police. The erring husband may have flitted to Australia or some other country. Years may pass, but eventually he returns or is returned to foot a substantial “bill" for the overdue maintenance of his wife and children.