ODT: 100 years ago

Table DP.2: Numbers granted a Domestic Purposes Benefit

Client age when benefit granted	Grants of a Domestic Purposes Benefit
	2007/2008	2008/2009	2009/2010	2010/2011	2011/2012
Benefits granted to working-age clients	36,494	41,811	40,616	38,072	36,258
Benefits granted to other clients	1,054	1,100	942	799	751
Total benefits granted	37,548	42,911	41,558	38,871	37,009

The annual grants above would be mainly to mothers who have lost the support of a partner or never had one. Some would be to 'deserted wives'. I note this to contrast a report in the ODT from 100 years ago:

The problem of the deserted wife is causing the Auckland Charitable Aid Board just now to think over the defects of legislation in this respect. The army of wives seeking fugitive husbands is assuming such alarming proportions that recently there have been exceptional calls upon the resources of the Charitable Aid Committee by those unfortunate women who have been left by their callous husbands with the burden of a family upon their hands. Recently there were no fewer than seven such applications before the committee, which felt so strongly on the subject that it passed a resolution recommending the board to draw the attention of the Government to the increasing number of cases of wife desertion, and urging it to instruct the police to bring the deserters back.

Seven!

This is definitely not a contender for, The more things change...