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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 23. September 17 1979

[Introduction]

Violence in marriage is still a very much under-emphasised thing in New Zealand, there is no statistical data on the incidence of wife assault. While child-abuse and muggings by Polynesians gets plenty of publicity, assaults on wives are kept under the table. Many assaults, the great majority in fact, are never reported and although in one month in Auckland there were 800 calls for domestic disputes, countless women suffer physical and mental anguish without their neighbours ever knowing. Women are also ashamed to lay complaints because they fear what the neighbours will think or out of misguided loyalty or for the sake of the children.

In a survey done by the New Zealand Federation of University Women in 1976 on marriage and the family, of the 961 women interviewed, 27 had experienced violence from their husbands. The NZFUW seemed to think that little could be done for those women especially if the husband would not accept counselling.

The police are the most frequent organisation called on to deal with the crisis of assault. The local constable, personally talked to, said this was the most frequent call he got.

But they are loathe to prosecute and almost turn a blind eye to the outrages being perpetrated. They are much more energetic in enforcing laws against property damage. At present it is being debated in Parliament whether to bring in stricter legislation about assault on spouses.

For a woman to leave her husband, there are such incredibly difficult things to face. She is often without money or friends, and for her to actually get a DPB, she has to go through amazing amounts of red tape with the Social Welfare Department. Then she has to wait up to four weeks for her emergency benefit to come through.

In the twelve months Aug 77 to Aug 78, the writer could only find 4 convictions for wife assault printed in the New Zealand Herald.

These articles ranged from wife being whipped and kicked during assault (N.Z. Herald 17 Aug. 77) for which the defendent got 12 month's probation, through to hitting a wife with a pitchfork (Herald 23 Aug. 77), also probation, through to an Attack close to murder, (17 Jan. 78) for which the defendent got the incredible sentence of nine month's imprisonment.

1977 Divorce figures show that of 9605 proceedings only 308 were accompanied by non-molestation orders, and of the 5488 decrees nisi only 32 were for reasons other than adultery, desertion and the other more common reasons for divorce.

How many of the 32 were for cruelty? Cruelty is a very hard thing to prove. You need medical evidence and witnesses.