WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1919, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

PERSONAL. Miss Helen Cutfield has returned from a trip to Marton and Wanganui. • » * • Mrs. E. A. Millar has returned from Christchurch. • • • ■ # Mrs. Mcldrum ib visiting her mother, Mrs. Carthew. • • • • Mrs. Holt (Eltham) has taken a cottage at Ngamotu for a week or two. •** • ' Mrs. P. S. Whitcombe and Miss Phyllis Whitcombe have returned from Napier. • • • ■ • Mrs. Les. Curtis and Miss Minnie Curtis, Stratford, are camping at Ngamotu. | • • » • Mrs. D. Morrison and Miss Janet Morrison left on Thursday for a visit to the South Island, where they will spend several months before leaving for the Old Country in April. • • • '•

Mrs. Chamberlain has returned to Wanganui. • • * • Mr. and Mrs. Percy Jackson have left for a visit to Wellington and Nelson. « « « « Miss Clatworthy leaves for Auckland on Tuesday. Mrs. Burnett has returned to Wanganui. Mrs. Howe (Opotiki), formerly of Christchurch, is a visitor to New Plymouth. Mrs. Rowe has just recently returned from the front, and is well known for her organisation of the Massage Department in Egypt and later for her work at Walton-on-Thames. • • • • Mr. and Mrs. H. Collier have returned to Wanganui $ » • • Mrs. H. Gibbs, of Wellington, is on a visit to New Plymouth. • • * • Mrs. Giesen (Wellington) is on a short j visit to New Plymouth. » • • • The engagement is announced of Miss Joan Kendall, elder daughter of Dr. Martindale Kendall (Wellington), to Dr. R. Campbell Begg, M.C. (late R.A.M.C.), of Wellington. » • • • Visitors at the Terminus Hotel this week include Mr. and Mrs. VledhiU, Christchurch; Miss Ensor, Wanganui; Mrs. Burnett, Wanganui; Mrs. Burdekin, Wellington; Mrs. and Miss Haywood, Palmcrston North; Mr. and Mrs. Pierard, Wellington; Mrs. King v , Auckland; Mrs. Gallagher, Sydney; and Mrs. McCrea, Wanganui.

WEDDING. A wedding of much interest took olacc at St. Paul's pro-Cathedral, Wellington, the contracting parties being Colonel Thomas Duncan McGregor Stout, D.5.0., son of the Chief Justice and Lady Stout, and Miss Agnes Isabel Pearce, M.8.E., daughter of Mr and Mrs A. E. Pearce, of Wellington. Both bridegroom and bride have a long record »f services in the war. Colonel Stout vas on the staff of the No. 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital, and served in Efeypt, Salonika, and France, and afterwards at the New Zealand Hospital at Brockenhurst. The bride left Wellington about four years ago to do war work in England, and served as a A r .A.D. in the kitchen at Walton-on-Thames Hospital. Later she went to Brockenhurst, where she was an ambulance driver. She remained with that hospital until its demobilisation, and was the last of the original band"'of New Zealand workers to leave.

WIPE SPANKED. HUSBAND FINED. How a husband chastised his wife was told at Llandaff police court when Ethel Cousins, wife of Ernest Cousins, a known Cardiff tradesman, summoned her husband for assault. Cousins, who, during the greater part of his married life, had been in the army, was demobilised in February. The case for the wife was that, after a quarrel at her sister's house, he violently assaulted her and injured her in such a manner that medical assistance had to be summoned. The solicitor for the defence, crossexamining Mrs. Cousins, read a letter which she had sent her husband, in which occurred the following: "I have quite made up my mind that I am not going to live with you, I never, loved you and I never will." .In further cross-examination she admitted having sent another letter to her husband, in which she said: "I met an American officer who was awfully interesting. There are hundreds in Cardiff more interesting than the British. They are fine, smart boys." She was handed a snapshot showing lrer with arms round an American officer's neck at a bathing place near Cardiff. This photograph had apparently been taken by her sister. Cousins said in his evidence that after their child died his wife's attitude beI 'ame almost callous. He went to her sister's house with the intention of effecting a reconciliation, but he lost his temper. He put her across a chair and Bpanked her with his open palm. He was fined 20s, with the alternative of one month's imprisonment.

FIGHT FOR WIFE. REVOLVER SHOT FOLLOWS .DISPUTE. How a husband and another man came into dispute as to who should possess the former's wife was related at Willesden, when a twenty-year-old sai'.or named Bastram was charged with attempting to commit suicide. A detective stated that the previous afternoon a man rushed out of a house in High Road, Willesden, and shouted: "A woman has been shot Upstairs." Witness ran inside, and saw another man, who said: "Be careful, 'he' is upstairs." Witness went upstairs to the top floor, where he saw Rose Webb lying on the floor, bleeding from a wound in the side. He asked her who had done it, and she said: "My husband struggled with him" (pointing to Bastram, who was present) "for the revolver and it went off" Bastram said: "Yes, it is ray fault. 1 toeujfet Um HToiTir htn. BiNM it <m

to me. Let me have the revolver again and I will shoot myself." He attempted to get the revolver, and, failing that, to grab a knife on the table. The detectivfe stated that the charge of attempted suicide was brought to see if the woman recovered, as alio was in a very serious condition. She was the wife of a soldier recently demobilised, nad Bastram had been living with her, and was the father of her children. On the previous afternoon Bastram went to the house to see the husband in order to get a decision which of them should have her. BIGAMOUS MARRIAGES. SOLDIERS IN ENGLAND. NEED FOR A SAFEGUARD. Is it possible to safeguard English women from bigamous marriages with overseas soldiers 1 This question was put to Mr. Cecil Chapman, the Westminster magistrate, recently. "If bigamy is to be prevented, marriage must be made more difficult," said Mr. Chapman. "It is absurd that two people should be able to marry without an investigation into their circumstances. There are questions absolutely vital to their future happiness; it should be made compulsory for friends or relatives to attend before the registrar or clergyman to answer these questions. And the persons who make the answers should be held responsible for them in law. "I frequently get cases here of women who, after their honeymoon days are over, discover themselves to be married to burglars or forgers. Such men are often of very respectable appearance. The wonmn'B parents are deceived into thinking the marriage suitable. But if probing questions were put before marriage to the man and to the woman it would be impossible for such tragic discoveries to be made, and the possibility of bigamy would be eliminated.

LACK OF INQUIRY. "In the case of a soldier from overseas it would not have been possible, in moat cases, for a registrar or clergyman to get the necessary information from friends, but in every case inquiry ought to have been made from the man's commanding officer. "In some cases this was done, but there was no legal obligation to do it. Very often no inquiries were made, and there have been a great number of bigamous marriages as a Tesult of this laxity. "At the present time there are still a number of overseas men In the country. Drills are finished, and the men have a great deal of spare time. It is not remarkable that some of these men should drift into bigamous marriages. "But," said Mr. Chapman, emphatically, "it is not always the woman who is : the victim. I believe that the overseas I soldier is quite as frequently the victim as is the English woman. I have had very many men come to me with the most touching Rtories of bigamous marriages which they have innocently contracted. "These soldiers are often anxious to stick to the women; it has not been possible to mistake the distress of many fine overseas men. who have discovered after marriage with an English woman that she has a husband living. The soldier needs safeguarding quite as much as the v "There are 4>ad bigamists and there are good bigamists," Mr. Chapman went on. "It would be foolish to blame indiscriminately every bigamist. The rich man who wishes to make a new marriage can often arrange a divorce; but divorce is still difficult for the poof. Bigamy is their substitute.

"GOOD BIGAMISTS." "I have known many men who have regretfully contracted a bigamous marriage because they could not afford the expense, of divorce. "Such a man has not perhaps heard of his wife for 20 or 30 years.' Late in life he meets a woman he comes to love. He does not wisli to enter into an irregular alliance with her. He marries her bigamously. And- when such a man comes up before the Court for judgment it often happens that he is- dismissed without a stain on Ms character. "Again and again a man in such position comes to me and says 'Can't you give me leave to marry sir?' I advise him according to his circumstances; if I tell him to take the risk his gratitude is so great that he can scarcely express himself. ,

"I assure you that many men commit bigamy with a high sense of responsibility, and when a man of this character comes before the Court a magistrate ia often inclined to say 'I don't blame you.' 'lt is difficult to know what to do in those cases where there is a deserted wife in England. If the husband is in Australia we can do nothing, for we have no jurisdiction there. But if we are to prevent bigamous marriages in future we must make marriage more difficult and divorce easier. This is the only solution."