LOVE'S QUICK FADE-OUT
NZ Truth , Issue 1140, 6 October 1927, Page 5
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LOVE'S QUICK FADE-OUT
Esther .Denies Court Story of A Dancing Partner STRANGE NOTE FOR HUSBAND (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) couldn't have been too bright m Dunedin some months ago when Frank Braid decided to leave the southern city and $eek employment elsewhere.
WHETHER Frank eought employment m vain on his way vp — or whether he intended to start fet the top »nd work downwards — is hard to say; at any rate, he arrived In Auckland — quite a long distance to put between himself and a young wife. They had only been married for a matter of twelve short months, and by the ordinary sequence of love's young dream the pinings and anguish caused by so many miles of land and sea between them should have kept the two Islands m a constant state of tremor during the six weeks before Frank was able to give the "coo-ec" southwards to his little Esther. The Auckland City CouncH provided tho necessary work to enable the husband to reinstate the Braid dovecote, and wages/ of- a little over a fiver a week were available to keep the pantry stocked. But somehow or other the_ young couple were not altogether m harmony, although there was a bonny baby to brighten the two rooms they occupied In Copeland Street, Newton. Eventually the Braid marriage bro-
cade became fairly __ to somebody telling unplatted and Mag- them that you were Istrate Hunt was t , a /~ 1 C<l .7 i » £? insr to dances SmavelSng? a little A Corker bheik ! S£ e 8 f r tinl ° cmc;e me ; Looking chic and week — jazzing? — attractive, Esther " """J ~"~ " t That s a lie!
was directed to the witness-box by her counsel, Lawyer Dyson. Her claim was for maintenance for herself and infant child and her reasons for leaving her husband were neglect and cruelty. When Frank had left her m Dunedin, all he sent her was £1. Then, when she Joined him m Auckland, the only cash she had received from him was one week's wages. "He did all the shopping himself and didn't provide me and my child with sufficient food," added the un.nappy Esther. i But If this constituted the negleotful part of the husband's behavior, his worship wished to know where the oruelty came m. "He sulked the whole time," explained the young wife. Soon after she arrived m Auckland, • Esther went on, she heard that prior [ to her joining her hUßband he had j been keeping company with another j woman. ' The magistrate, however, reminded Jier oounsel that such allegations had (to be proved and were really a matter i i I
■ for other proceedings m a higher • court. ' : Esther brought her story of domes' tic woe to a conclusion by stating that I she had left Frank a few weeks ago > and was now earning £2/5/- m a r shirt factory. She was keeping herself and the baby and staying with friends. 1 Lawyer Schramm, when his turn 1 came, sprang up to bring into play [ the legal end of Frank's side of the 1 domestic differences. ' "Now, I want you to be very care, ful — " But he was interrupted imme• dlately by his worship's Inquiry: "What are you going to prove? A lot of allegations against the woman's . behavior?" Counsel contended that what he was going to ask the witness had a very ' strong bearing on the case, and he '• proceeded to ask if she had not been to the Children's Welfare League for advice and had been told to go home, as she had no case for a claim for maintenance. Esther said she had. She also admitted that she had been written to by Major Annie Gordon. Counsel: Did you not speak or write
via you not get other men to take you to these dances? — It's a lie! "Does her husband want to live with her? That's what I want to know," interjected the bench. "Yes, your worship, if she'll give up going to dances with other men," replied counsel. Lawyer Schramm: Is it a fact that your husband objected to you going to dances? — Yes, at the start. Esther would not agree that other men had been, taking her to dances, nor would she admit that she had. mentioned anything about having a "corker sheik." The husband's counsel produced a letter which he seemed anxious witness should read, but the magistrate intervened and silently perused the two-page epistle. "I went to that place called Protection for Women and Children," read counsel from a copy of the letter, "and asked for advice, but I didn't get much satisfaction. She said I wouldn't be doing a wise thing to leave my husband, because I hadn't the .' evidence to eret maintenance for myself and she doubted if I could get it for June. But if I do leave I will give it a good go. . . ." Esther contended that she had written the letter as "a blind" for her husband and had left it near his shaving gear, where he would be sure to find it. Lawyer Schramm: Who is the man referred, to as the "corker sheik"?— No man at all. You say you wrote the letter as "a blind"? — Yes, to see if my husband would take more notice of me. Magistrate Hunt: "You don't mean to say you would use such language as is m the letter for that purpose?" > But Esther still held out that it was "a blind," though her Angers continued to give the rail of the & witness-box a very severe mas- sage. > Asked by the magistrate what > she required for the maintenance V of her child, Esther said 10/- suffice. V An order for 10/- a week was Jfc^ made and the question of guard- Nk^ ianship suspended.
