BACHELORS’ SUPPORT.

This was the sole voice of protest raised during the day. Even the bachelors, represented by Mr. H. Edwards, supported the plea of the ladies. Mr. Shepperson, as father of one child, welcomed the bill because he will now be able to go home and exercise a little more authority than he has hitherto possessed. Not as a philosopher, but as a married man – he did not explain the distinction – Mr. Murray also gave his benediction. The critic might have questioned Miss Jewson’s right to assert that in happy marriages the wife usually gets her own way, but not a protest was raised. Mr. Rhys Davies, as a married man, confessed that there is only one “boss” in a happy home, and that is not the husband. The last word, he says, always rests with the wife when domestic relationships are good, and not a cynic suggested what happens when conditions are otherwise.

Mrs. Philipson, the Duchess of Atholl, and Lady Terrington were all enthusiastic supporters of the bill. The fathers, Lady Terrington pointed out, have much less to do with the upbringing of the children than the mothers. Father does not buy the boots and clothes; he merely pays for them, a duty which should confer on him no special privilege. Unfortunately, said Lady Terrington, she had no children, but hopefully she added that she may have some day. But even people with no children, she claims, can know the chief points about their up-bringing.

With so much agreement the bill was read a second time without a division, but further progress with it is doubtful, as the Government have promised to introduce a measure of their own on the same lines.