A Darling Creature.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3914, 16 September 1891, Page 3

A Darling Creature.

..-.' The stage witticism that man and tfflLL wife are one and sometimes one too WsT-. many received the confirmation of fact in the Victorian Legislative Assembly the other day. Dr Pearson asked the Attorney-General why a man named Todd, who had been committed to gaol for refusing to maintain his -wife, had been released by the V; Governor on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice. Mr Shiels for the first time had a domestic difference,. in hand, in which the * ronged one was his wife. He said Todd had offered his wife a home to which she refused to go; that he had on different occasions spent altogether three years in gaol for not maintaining his wife; that if he were gaol he could not be expected -*To make an effort in that direction ; that the Minister of Justice thought he had been sufficiently punished, and did not propose he should be kept in prison till the end of his days. .',- Moreover, confidential reports of the police officers showed that Mrs Tcdd was unworthy of sympathy. She was able to earn her living, so the record ran, and before marriage was the " Miss M'Eee - of Yarra -Bend -fame." Members versed in asylum scandals immediately recognised hei. Then Mr Shiels read letters, written by hereto the late - Premier, the late Chief Secretary, and Mr Pranton, in which were some burning sentences. The favourite remark wastothis effect:—"lf that scoundrel, my husband, is liberated, by heavens I'll shoot him dead." Mr Shiels relied upon the declaration ot that intention for justiCcation of the opinion that Mrs Todd was unworthy of sympathy. v The prevalent feeling was one of wonder that Todd should be unhappy •^^j^aol.