Auckland Divorce Case.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1624, 29 April 1875, Page 3

Auckland Divorce Case.

The particulars of the Auckland divorce case Foulkes v. Foulkes and Cross, recently determined in favour of the petitioner with £100 damages against the respondent, were set forth in the petition as follows : —"On the 17th December, 1863, the petitioner, -who was a butcher, and afterwards a carter, was married to Mary Jane Harp, then a spinster, at the parish church of Howick, by the Rev V. Lush. For some time matters proceeded very harmoniously, and two children were born, one, named Eachel, in September, 1864, and another, a son, in 1866, whose name was not known to the petitioner, as circumstances which transpired immediately after the birth of this child led to a separation between the parties. These circumstances first came to the knowledge of petitioner in October, 1686, when he had reason to suspect that an adulterous intercourse subsisted between his wife and the co-respondent, who was then residing at Howick. He accused his wife of holding improper comnmnication with Cross, and she promptly admitted that she loved Cross better than she did her hnsband. They conversed upon the subject for some little time, and the petitioner, being a man of generous impulses, said he could not blame her for that; that if nothing more serious had happened, he would do all he could to make her home happy, so that she should have as little reason as possible to find fault with her lot. This brought affairs to a culmination, for the respondent then confessed that she had upon several occasions since her marriage committed adultery with Cross. From that moment the petitioner determined to cohabit with his wife no longer. He immediately went to Auckland, and took passage thence to Dunedin, leaving his wife, with her own consent, at the house of her mother, Mrs Harp. Not long after this the petitioner was informed that his wife had left Howick, and prqeeeded to Wellington to join Cross, who left Howick as soon as the unpleasant circumstances, above narrated, became known to the friends of the parties, and is now a partner in the firm of Taylor and Cross, builders, in that city. It had also been ascertained that, since the* arrival of Mrs Foulkes in Wellington, in ISG6, she had cohabited with Cross ; that during this time she had had three children by him, and was still cohabiting with him : being, in fact, krown as his wife. Upon these facts the present suit was instituted ; but, as the respondent and co-respondent did not put in an appearance, the only duty which devolved upon the jury was to assess the damages, which were laid at £500 I