MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 150, 28 July 1883, Page 3

MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY

Women, as a rule, take little interest in politics. The mass of them have hardly yet risen out : of that feeling of inferiority and depenedncev which, existed when a woman was as much the goods 1 and. chattels of her husband as his horse or his dog. The great majority of them — all, in fact, except , the most educated, travelled, and self-reliant — have not yet fully realised the fact that the old chains have, one by one, been knocked off, '-and that a woman possesses individual rights apart from those which she derives from a husbandi It takes generations to educate any race or class up ' to an adequate conception and realisation of free- , dom from shackles and disabilities -which have existed for centuries. The spirit of freedom in its purest sense is hereditary. The Ttussian serf;, has not yet become accustomed to walk without his shackles. The negroes of South America' at first regarded their emancipation as a disadvantage, . if not a cruelty and a wrong. They hugged their . chains, and feared, like children, to walk aloide.

Women, ■at least the purest and noblest of" them, instinctively shrink from the jostle and jar of the hustings and polling booths. .Their.most useful sphere lies in the quieter arena of rhome- , life. Their influence on politics ia only, indirect. True, now and then some women of commanding intellect or surpassing beauty draws about;,, her salon a circle of wits, poets, authors, or, politicians, and exerts a powerful influence in the direction of events, but such instances are rare, and more frequently women who pose before the outer world as diplomats and arbiters of politics are themselves in turn only tke tools of some clever and ambitious man like a Richelieu, Napoleon, or Talleyrand. Sir Julius Yogel understood this secret, and always liad. a. corps oi female lobbyists and ball-room deems, to lead refractory Opposition members iffi silken strings. We could point to more than one member of the House of Representatives, or even Cabinet Minister, who owe their elevation, honours, and wealth entirely to the tact and judicious management of their wives.

We have no desire to. underrate the worth of women, when we say that at present theyido not as a sex exhibit any conspicuous aptitude for the rude arena,. of , politics,. _y<ith its fierce party, strife, ora- : t9ric|i,l^u|fetiijgß,Vrangleß, personalities and re- } tfnpxin*hpoi plncaneirj, and too often meaa '4

l^^vb^'mo^pr; :lesß^ar^eried 4 n .d brutalised in '4 :f;rßucb: an atmosj^iiere. • .. \, ! *■•,•:;',, ;•;> /.;". ( . , ■_•-•- ' ♦ ■ — -r^i — -' \ '-, ' !

: "-'!-: ; -Wliiafr : wpman's. 'destinj is to be in the future, V/he-'WOuldibea'bold 'inan'tliat-. would venture to ' ; ; Vi>re,dict.' She. may, as the democratic tendency of '■;'■'•■ :th,e age seems tq indicate, exercise .an equal share •V^ioshe active political arena with man, vote in the 'Senate/ preside over public departments, and even v^hqtd^abinetiportfoliosi but that day is not yet, at I ■ all events, in British communities, however it may j'l be-in America. But in all that more immediately "i concerns,^ domestic life, that directly concerns I- the .moral and physcal wellbeing of a community, ■,'ii ■> apart from great international questions and diplo - ; ,f- inatic problems, woman has an undoubted right ;. r to Exercise an equal influence with man. Take ■■X.-foi?- example such subjects as the drink traffic, { ):. sanitary matters, the. care of orphans and desti- { <..,iute, and .some species of crime and, disease. p< There are certain social sins and anomalies from ■-;''■ ■ tnedffects of which women are the chief sufferers, Viand in the prevention of which they have not a ' ; ' fa|? share, They, suffer helplessly and in silence, ■ -while the burden chiefly falls on them and their ' '•'■.' children in the shape of lives of miserable • drudgery, blighted prospects, and ruined homes. k : . 'A, little bird sings that a great deal of this will be i remedied in the not very remote future, when i ■women shall have fully realised the influence f •which they will be capable of exerting on legisla- i tkm, and the free and progressive spirit of the 1 '. age shall have, given them more confidence in their own powers. ] . . — . +. }

There is no branch of law at present in this { colony which stands in greater need of reform , than that which relates to the property of married ; ■women. Under the existing law great injustice is ' inflicted on persons of moderate means who ] '. seldom go to the expense of having a marriage '' settlement, and consequently, on the marriage J taking place, the personal property which the ■wife possessed befere marriage passes to her hue- ' band, who often squanders it and leaves her desti- < fcute. It is true that the husband becomes liable for ] any debts that she owes, but it is seldom that \ she is indebted at all. More frequently the i indebtedness is the husband's, and the wife's « means go to pay it off, or are swallowed up 1 . in some speculation. The "Married Woman's ' Property PreWcbiosi Act," passed by the Imperial Parliament, came -nto operation on the Ist | ■ January last,- and the primary object which the .■-, promot'era of the measure had iv view was to f ■ enable a married woman, to have the same status, - in respect of property to which she was entitled \ before marriage, or became ..ossesscd of after wards, , as she would have as a -ne sole.. There has • . jet been little opportur.- ■„ ol judging whether the , ' Act is likely to wo^L satisfactorily or not,, but a | 1 case has arisen which ebows i-hat, whilst- a married < ■woman obtains certain pfsvil-oges which she did i . not before possess, she is Jso saddled v-itli new \ responsibilities. i

„ _ ■ . 4_ : 1 As the law previously stood, a married woman might, sell or otherwise dispose of ' any of her husband's property which ~,vna in her ' custody, and -no information for larceny would : k lie against her, but under the new law, a woman i V who ran off from her husband, taking iv-i-tain " things^belonging him, was found guilty of larceny. ] „»i -Before the Act was passed such proceedings could ( ■•only be taken against the person with whom she ; 4- eloped, and then only when he was found v; i '■ - actual possession of some of the husband's goods. ' It is to be feared that the property of husband ] ' ! and- wife so far as household furniture, jewellery, j .•' and other articles of a similar kind are concerned, i .' '--"will' be apt to get mixed up, so that it will be i ■'■■ difficult to distinguish what belongs to the one 1 and what to the other. A Bill has been introduced by the Hon. Mr Whitaker into the New Zealand Legistature, mainly founded on the * > . ; Imperial Act, but as this article has already ' reached. sufficient length, we shall reserve our , ; (Comments on , the measure for our next issue. , , The subject is, however, of such supreme impor- \ ■ trace to women, who compose a ver) largo pro- \ .. .portion of our readers, that we make no apology " ; for devoting so much space to its consideration, i , an,d. we recommend all our fair readers, single as ( •weli as. married, to examine it carefully.