The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1914. LAZY HUSBANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 262, 3 April 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1914. LAZY HUSBANDS.

The Labor Government of New South Wales has no sympathy for the man who will not work to support his wife ot ihis children—legitimate or illegitimate. I Unfortunately, every community is cursed with a proportion of such citizens, New Zealand in particular. The Melbourne Age, in the course of a commendatory article, points out that in Victoria some 500 children are annually cast upon the care of the State (at a heavy cost to the taxpayer, which now amounts in the aggregate to about £30,000 per annum), owing to the culpable neglect of their fathers; and considerable numbers of wives are also deserted and left without provision, wlio struggle along somehow to maintain themselves and theii; offspring rather than ask the State for aid. Now South Wales until quite recently was no better off; but some six months ago the Labor Ministry experimentally applied a cure which appears to be turning oat a glittering success. The expedient selected was an Act of Parliament that abolished the old system of imprisoning for fixed terms defaulting husbands and fathers, and has imposed instead thereof the indeterminate sentence, reinforced with machinery to compel the offenders to support their dependents by prison labor. The new system deserves consideration, if only because it is framed on lines of the stoutest commonsense. It takes hold of the recalcitrant husband or father and sets him to work either in one of the prison factories, in the gaol gardens, or on one of the State penal farms. Each confinee is credited with a minimum pay of sixpence per hour for his labor, but skilled tradesmen can earn considerably more. The money, however, is not paid to the prisoner. A sum of 10s 6d per week is deducted for his rations, another small deduction is made to go towards liquidating arrears of maintenance to his dependents, and the balance is handed over to his wife or children; The prisoner may secure his liberty at any time he chooses by making good his old defaults, or by obtaining sureties guaranteeing payment within a reasonable time. Failing this, lie must stay in prison until he has earned his redemption by prison work; even though he should remain a prisoner all his life. The discipline applied to make him work is founded simply and frankly on the Apostle Paul's famous injunction, "If any man will not work, neither shall he eat." There is no taskmaster to stand over the bad parent with a whip. There is no need for that sort of compulsion. The man is shown his work and is blandly told to "do that, or go without your .dinner." Paul's injunction, said the Attorney-! itinera! last week, "is literally applied to the whole prison population, except the sick and an occasional debtor." And the treatment works wonders. So far there has not been a single hunger strike, and the men "are working so well," says Mr. Hall, "that I hope in the near future to be able to increase their allowance (minimum) to something over sixpence per hour." The result of five months' working of the system is thus related by the New South Wales Minister:—"Strangely enough, our generous treatment has proved most popular with the prisoners. They feel that things are not what they used to be. and, rather than submit, they pay up and leave the establishment. During the last live months forty-six men have paid up £442 5s 4d to their respective wives, and so obtained liberty, whilst a number of others have been let out on obtaining satisfactory sureties guaranteeing prompt payment." Surely a system so obviously efficacious offers us a model for immediate imitation in this country.