DIVORCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 69, 22 March 1915, Page 7

DIVORCE.

Before Mr. Justice Hosking this morning, Elizabeth McKenzie .sought divorce from her husband, Alexander McKenzie, a labourer, to whom she had been married in November of 1893. Mr. R. A. Singer appeared for the petitioner, and Mr. J. R. Lundon for the respondent.

The evidence showed that the parties had lived together, at Auckland and at the Thames, and there were five children by the marriage. Some five years after the respondent developed constantly drunken habits, and had not since contributed anything at all towards the maintenance of his wife and family. He had been persistently cruel to his wife, and in 1908 they had agreed to live apart, 6he to take the two girls, and he the three boys. She had felt that she could not afford to keep all the children by her own unaided efforts, and her husband had not been contributing anything at all towards the maintenance of the family. In a couple of yeaais the boys left their father, and casne to live with their mother. While they were living with their father they had often come to their mother hungry, and in need of clothes. The mother had supported the family by keeping a boarding-house.

The decree nisi was granted, to be made absolute in three months. No order was made as to costs, the defence being withdrawn.