WIFE'S ALLEGED FAILING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 195, 18 August 1922, Page 5

WIFE'S ALLEGED FAILING.

FOLXD OUT SINCE MARRIAGE. He had known his wife for five years before marriage, when she was a 'barmaid, and it was not until aboxit a month after he married her, on his return from the war. that he found she was a secret drinker, stated Frank P. Holt (Mr. A. Moody), in resisting a claim by the wife for maintenance. He stated that she had drawn about £400 when he was at the war, and she was not then his wife, and that she owned a property at Ta-kapuna. yielding 30' a week rent in the winter months, and £4 a week in the summer. He had never drawn any of that money, and had given her an allowance until recently when he found it was all going in drink, and he refused to give her more for spending in that fashion. He got £275 a year, and was willing to pay what was necessary for liis wife's living expenses, but did not I desire to ena.ble her to continue drinKjinp. It seemed to him that the drinking habit was acquired wlien he was at the war. The wife (represented by Mr. R. E. Matthews) denied that she was a drinker. Her board, she said, was 32. t> a week. To Mr. Moody, the defendant said he would pay the rates and taxes on the Takapuna property, and the interest on a mortgage of £ lf>o that- encumbered it. Mr. K. C. Clltten, S.M., remarked that the position for thp man was extremely ditlieult. He would not make an order against the husband, but suggested the man should pay 10 a week till matters came to a more definite pontiun, a> seemed inevitable.