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PACEY V. PACEY.

MIDDLE-AGED COUPLE AT VARIANCE. Station-owner Dorset Co-Respondent. * i . . ________ ■".-.. ■ ■ Fifteen Hundred Quidseys Claimed as Damages. A Recreative Run to Rotorua— Did She Fall or Was She Pushed?— Dorset's Damning Divulgencies. >

A suit m divorce instituted by one William Pacey against Thomasina Maria Pacey, respondent, and E. W. Dorset, as co-respondent,! was commenced before Mr Justice Cooper, and a jury of twelve, last Saturday, ; and was concluded on Wednesday. The plaint set forth m the petition was that the respondent had been guilty of adultery with' fie co-res-pondent, from whom £1,50 v damages was claimed. There was a counter petition by the respondent against the petitioner on the grounds of his adultery. Mr Young appeared for the petitioner. Mr Blair represented the respondent, and Mr D. .. M. Findlay jooked after the interests of Dorset, who is said to be a wealthy .iarmer -at Carterton. ' ■■■■--■■■, The parties , are all middle-aged people, Dorset being a widower with a grown-up family, one at least being married. In opening the case Mr Young dwelt at some length on the acts of adultery, most of which, it \ms alleged, had been qom^ matted on a trip to Rotorua, which counsel facetiously referred to as "the /honeymoon" of the respondent and co-respondent. In the evidence that was subsequently given, counsel's opening narrative: of the facts was borne out. ..'..' . The parties were married m 1&83, and there were several children by the marriage. The couple apparently lived 'as happily as most married people do, up till 1903, when Dorset obscured the hymenal horizon, .and it seems to have been darkened ever since. Pacey was, m 1903, a hotelkeeper, which trade he has followed with more or less success ever since m New Zealand and Fiji. Dorset came to Palmerston North m 1963, and- stayed at the Occidental Hotel, which was carried on m the name of Heriot, the respondent's father, the petitioner then being an undischarged bankrupt. That house was subsequently sold, but the financial part of the transaction, it appears, was not satisfactory to all parties. At all events, five months later, they took another hotel at Levin, and it was while at Levin that the serious arid disturbintr. if romantic, part of Pacey's matrimonial venture developed. Dorset at this time was a good friend to the family, and Mrs Pacey ' used .her " influence on the doughty Dorset to induce him to back some bills to enable him to go into the pub. The eldest son of the Pacey family was drowned at sea while fishing and this caused Mrs Pacey to have . A NERVOUS BREAK-DOWN, and though it was alleged against Pacey that his conduct was brutal and. callous m: refusing to allow > his wife to see a doctor, and describing .her X. as; h -&ein& J oiijy =- : sba&miajEv-'' the 'prostratev wife 1 - and 1 " toother did at length see a doctor, and v;ias by him ordered 1 away for a change of air. A party was formed for a ramble to Rotorua ; but that party eventually dwindled down to.tWo, viz., the respondent and the co-respondent, and together they did Rotorua ; the petitioner being m blissful ignorance of what was going on. till he got wind from New Plymouth that his wife and Dorset seemed to be- on* very, familiar terms. The husband did not doubt at first, and when the travellers returned ' welcomed them effusively and drank with them. ; But after the husband had', caught his wife and Dorset spooning together m one of the hotel'sittingrooms the 'Othello In' him was aroiised and ,he wanted to know things and told Dorset what he thought; (though he. did ' not lose bis temper m doing- it) and . Dorset, being under the controlling influence of drink at the tiniejfaidmi'tted that on the tour his had exceeded him" ;a--bout four . times ; '■. but the wronged husband calmly * reckoned that it might have been ten times that number. .All this- happened after March, 190EJ, ; m which month the trip to, Rotorua was taken. • Thei petitioner also alleged that his wife had cleared off ! to Oarterton to dally with Dorset.but the assertion on the. other sid-e. was that Pacey had sent his wife to the s co-respondent ; TO WrE HIS LUG for a £400 loan which did not come off, and becfause it did not come off, the respondent said Pacey's attitude towards Dorset underwent a complete change. Keeping a pub at Levin did npt seem'to have been profitable, so the parties came down to Wellington. , Then Pacey wanted to try his luck m 'a pub at Sunnier (Ohristchurch), but the missus would' have none of it, and the long and short of it was she, according .to Pacey, preferred Dorset to him, and went to live with him at Kilbirnie. Pacev unostentatiously packed off to Fiji, where he got a pub at Suva. He said he left his missus and two boys with; about £75, but the respondent averred he left her m poverty, and while m that -state' she appealed to Dorset, who bought some beds and pots ', etc., far a home m Oriental Terrace, m which home Mrs Pacev had previously existed on the charity qf a family named Beath, until the Beaths went to~Dunedin. After that Dorset took a house 1 - at Kilbirnie, which establishment he still kept ui>, and where Mrs Pacey reigned as house-keeper at 12s per week, and m which house she lodged, boarded and clothed her aged father ; her boys having been taken away by their father. -. Such, briefly, was the story told. There was, as usual, a lot of superfluous matter from which it is impossible to separate any lengthy court case. A great part of Mr Blair's cross--examination of the petitioner related to his financial dealings with Dwan Bros. T. W. Young and Hannah, and though it was apparent that i Dorset had played a prominent part iin the deal for the hotel at Levin, I Pacey would hardly admit the obligations he was under to the co-respond-ent.

Several letters from the three parties were read m court, and m one Pacey had written to the co-re-spondent, he complained of his intrusion* into his matrimonial menage; but the reply was a guarded one, and calculated to assure him that Dorset was not poaching. ' Referring to Mrs Pacey's visit to Dorset at Carter ton, Mr Blair said, "I suggest, Mr Pacey, that you sent her there to borrow money from Dorset ?i— l did not ; it is a, lie like many others that have been manufactured. We are manufacturing evidence and you are not ?— Well, that is. a lie that was manufactured two 'and a half years ago/ , The, excuse, alleged by Pacey, for his wife's absence was a visit to another part of the country to see the flowers at Dorset's place, and when cross-examined the petitioner strongly denied that he had wired three or four times to his wife ito learn the result of her BOODIiE BORROWING \ expedition to Dorset at Carterton. He said -that all along he had pror tested against his wife's familiarity with Dorset. ' ' As a result 'of your son's " tragic death your wife became very ill— it. was a great shock to her ?— She was the cause of the drowning, and it preyed on her mind,. , And she became very ill •? — I don't know whether she was ; she made out she was. ... You did not believe it ?— I don't believe she was so very ill. A lot of ; questions followed this, bearing on Pacey's refusal to send for a doctor, and Pacey was at length made to say, as an excuse, that the .reason he did not seek medical attendance was that he knew her symptoms better than other people did: 'It next transpired that ' Dorset, after the return from Rotorua, stayed at the hotel three or four days. , During those days petitioner caught bis wife -,-' HUGGING DORSET m an upstairs sittmg-room, and when he ventured to mildly protest their answer was an accusation of some impropriety on his (petitioner's) part 11 months before., "That was a little surprise for you ?" suggested Mr Blak.— "lt was another , lie," Said Pacey. "Something I had heard tell of before." Do you know a girl named Kate Saunders ?J-Yes. ■ Did you ever receive a letter from this girl, accusing you of being the father of , her child ?— No ; but I believe my 'wife had some letter hawking it about. . ' . Did; she show it to you ?—Yes. What did you do with it ?-^I tore it up and threw it m her face. / I *saM- -wr-fee-re,^da'J your'b'esi* yoti-havtf been trying ~tav balckmail <me.'V"- .., Blackmail ?^-r Yes, trying to bring me m guilty of something I Was not guilty of. •••.• , . ' Mr Blair next produced what he said was a copy of that letter, but Pacey could not recollect whether it was the same. ' "It is something to ' that effect;" he said, '-'but there was no truth m it." * Pacey denied that' he was m the habit of occasionally getting the worse of liquor; but modified his denial somewhat by 5 adding that he •might have . got a bit jolly sometimes, though he was always capable of looking after himself. From Suva he had written : to his wife that he had ltnpckeNfl off taking whisky, and explained that this was due to the climate. ' At a later stage he said N the drink then m fashion was lemon squash.- Mr Blair suggested that he had knocked off whiskey to drink champagne^ and this evoked the reply from Pacey that he had sold £53 worth of n|k m three, days. He next admitted having employed a barmaid named Kitty Walsh. . She took a bit too much cham-' pagne ?— Yes, I she did.. "*•'• >■■ Were you and X itty Walsh m the habit; of getting into bed together drunk on chanipaerne ?—rNo,_ that's a lie ; a bare-faced lie. ■ ■'■•■ Has Kitty WAlsh been m your room* m a state! of nakedness 7-^Never m my life. 'She was never on.>my landing ; she- lived iriu a cottage with the rest of the servants: ;■ Concluding liis cross-examination of the petitioner Mr Blair elicited from him thair the fact that when Dorset left Levin, after the Rqtorua trip, he may have said good-bye to him and seen him 6ff. * Mr Findlay then took Pacey m hand and drew from him the statement that a traveller came to Levin from New Plymouth and told him of what he had seen there. (What an exceedingly desirable traveller f or v a firm to send out.) He "was upset when he learned that his wife and, Dorset, had been together at Rotorua. After Dorset came back with his wife Pacey had a drink with him. When he found his wiiffi with her arms around Dorset his suspicions were get-; tins; fairly strong. Mr Findlay : And I suppose, that is tlie reason you did not kick him out of the house at once ?— I thought it was not the. right thing for the landlady of the house to be m such a position. ..-.-■ You lost your temper ?— I did. .not.. It's a good job I didn't. You allowed Dorset to remain m the house over night ?— Yes. You also found them m a compromising position the next day ; you gave them plenty of opportunity apparently ?— I had my business to attend to below. Were your suspicions confirmed then ?— Yes, pretty well. After this second incident you were • satisfied that your wife was guilty ? —Yes I was perfectly satisfied they understood each other too well. Dorset's admission about his passion only exceeding him four * times • When on the tour of Rotorua was made tb the presence of a number of witnesses. Mr Findlay : You thanked him for his moderation ?— I said it might h*ve been 40 or 50 times.

On Monday morning <Mr Findlay returned to the attack and dealt principally with, the financial .position of Pacey at Levin. Through his wife refusing to: accompany him. tip Siimner he failed to get a certificate from the police, this refusal to go to Sujnner,; by Mrs Pacey, the petit-; ipner characterised as ' A CONSPIRACY. Do you know the reason she would' not go ?— Yes, Dorset was m- Wellington* : - 4 He would not admit the reason was because of his drinking habits. What do you mean m your letter from Fiji that you had given up whisky. Did it mean that you had reformed ?~No, I was never m the habit of being a drunkard, and I did not intend to be a good templar. After denying that' he had cleared off to Fiji without informing >his wife and that he lelt her penniless, Pacey was briefly re-examined by Me Young, and to him he said that he had employed the girl Kate Sunders, as a waitress, for three weeks, but on learning: that she was pregnant he discharged her. . . •'• Permission was next given Mr , Bladr to question Pacey re an alleged act of adultery with a woman named Mrs MoQuinn. This was alleged to have taken place at the.' Australian Hotel, Dunedin, but Pacey ridiculed the idea, and stated that the. woman was 76 years of age. ( .Did, not Mrs Pacey refuse to live with yen for a week after that?^No. With Mr Young's assistance, Pacey cleared the matter up by explaining that Mrs McQuimn, who was a regular customer for a bottle of stout, had occasion to take her purse FROM HER BOSOM,' ; 1 arid while buttoning up her "blous4 Mrs Pacey came on the scene (it was m the bar parlor), and wanted tb know what he was doing.; Pacey, who had turned his head away during the blouse-fouttoning operation, answered that he was only waiting for a shilling. . Evidence was given by a young man named Thomas Laurence, who m March, 1905, was employed as porter at the Commonwealth Hotel at New Plymouth; He was positive that he saw Dorset m Mrs Pacey 's bedroom m the hotel. he said that two single rooms were engaged and the hotel maid asked if. a double bed was required. Dorset said that he only wished, it was a double bed. When the porter saw Dorset m Mts Pacey 's room he wanted to know why, and was told by the co-respondent that he was only looking after his neice, who was Hi after the journey. / Dorset was familiarly known as Uncle by all parties, and more than one witness called deposed "to having seen Dorset m constant attention on Mrs Pacey, even when she was sick, m bed. One old man, who had been boots at the Levin pub, told of seeing Mrs Pacey and Dorset cuddling m n upstairs room, and at the time remarked that they were a loving couple. • ; ; Evidence was also 1 given by twd men named Leonard Price and . Al-+ fred Barrett, who described themselves respectively as a book-keeper and billiardroom-keeper, which was to the effect that on December 20 last they spied through a window pi a house at KiTbirnie and there saw Mrs Paqey m bed and Dorset m the room m his pyjamas ; after which , the! 4igh^weni»ottt., '■*-■- ;. : *^ ; v . Cecil P^cev. a boy of 15, son of the petitioner and' respondent, gave evidence that at Levin his father and mother lived on good terms, . He also said that when his mother lived a, t Beath's Dorset visited lier every day. At the house at Kilbirnie he had seen .Dorset m his mother's room. She had rheumatism m the leg and Doret rubbed her ankles and knees with some preparation. y,. Both respondent "and corespdndeift were called by Mr Blair and both denied any impropriety at any time. The relationship that existed -was purely platpnic. When she went to Rotorua with Dorset. Pacey knew that a Mrs Oliver and another, lady, who had arranged to go had- backed out and her husband knew she ' Was. going with Dorset. Both were em-' phatic on the point tha,t they< .^did not stay a* the Commonwealth Hotel at New Plymouthf but at Arrowsmith's private hotel. At '; this ! Hotel he had gone into her room- because' she was ill. Though they had travelled together around Rotorua 'eapn travelled under their own names, and EVERYTHING WAS RESPEOT- ' ' ■■ ■■:■■■' •■ ABLE. ? ■.•■..:/■■■'■.•■.. Mrs Pacey, after denying that'/ stop, was anything that a wife should not be went on to describe the Mrs McQuinn incident at the Australian 1 Hotel. Her allegation was that Pacey was drunk, and that she walked into /the bar parlor and found Mrs McQuinn lying on the, sofa.; What she saw convinced her of. the pairs guilt. Subsequently she forgave him. On: the night of December 20 last, ! she was" "-at O'Donnell's hall at a concert arid therefore the evidencegiven by Price and Barret* was untrue. . T»» Under cross-examination by Mr Young she denied that it was her: intention m the event of her being di-r vorced to marry Dorset. She wanted a divorce from Pacey because he wanted one from her. -She had gone, to Rotorua under her medical man s advice. / . _ " " ■■••M.r. Young: The advice ol "Dr Dorset ?— No, Dr McKenzie. . •; She denied, that during the tripr^o Rotorua,. or at any other time, had: Dorset been a husband to he? ; nor had "Dr." Dorset treated her during the trip to Rotorua. Practically ! Dorset had been kind to her ; but she, evaded the question whether Dorset was kinder to her than her husband. Mr Young ; The doctor ordered you, to go away ?— Yes. ' But he did not order Dorset to go with you ?--No. • .1, The co-respondent's denials of lmpropriety were just as strong as the respondent's. He, had complained to Pacey about beine; • thrown so much m the company of his wife and looking .after her, but Pacey told him not to mind, as he did not object. ':■■-■ . He denied under cross-examination that he would marry the respondent, and explained that he took Mrs Pacey under his wing because he did . not want to see the woman and her • family starve or go on the streets. The rest of the evidence given for the respondent (none was called by Mr Findlay, on behalf of the co-res-rondenl) was to prove an alibi lor , Mrs Pacey on the night of fteceia'ber 20, A Mis Beagley and hter

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19070302.2.38

Bibliographic details

NZ Truth, Issue 89, 2 March 1907, Page 5

Word Count
3,044

PACEY V. PACEY. NZ Truth, Issue 89, 2 March 1907, Page 5

PACEY V. PACEY. NZ Truth, Issue 89, 2 March 1907, Page 5