DIVORCE GRANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 8

DIVORCE GRANTED.

FORMER CABINET MINISTER.

HON. T. M. B. FISHER.

WIFE'S PETITION SUCCEEDS.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Francis Marion Bate 9 Fisher, a former New Zealand Cabinet Minister, and at one time the youngest Minister in the country, petitioned the Supreme Court to-day for a divorce from his wife, Esther Alice Fisher. Mutual agreement to separate was the ground of the petition. » Mrs. Fisher cross-petitioned on the same ground, and obtained a decree nisi, t to be made absolute after three months. The husband was ordered to pay his [ wife's costs, on the highest scale. The payment of the. costs of hearing of i lengthy evidence on commission in England was left to agreement between the parties. The husband did not proceed on his petition, and his counsel offered no objection to the ground of the cross petition. "Somewhat Peeved at Defeat." Mr. A. T. Donnelly, for petitioner, said Fisher was in Parliament in New Zealand, and for some years was a member of the Cabinet. In 1914 he was defeated at the election, and to some extent was "peeved" at this defeat. He went to England and offered his services to the authorities during the war period, when he did work of considerable value. Later, by the good offices of some of the people with whom he had worked in the war period, he obtained the position which he held today. "His , position, from the evidence, showed that he was to some extent a financial adventurer," said Mr. Donnelly, "though I don't use the term in any offensive sense. In other words, he was quite willing to go anywhere where there was a field for his talent." Did Not Want Her in England. There was a lengthy correspondence between husband and wife as to whether they would live together again. Mrs. Fisher wanted to go to England, and Fisher sdid that if she did he was disinclined to live with her again. On February 24, 1920, h« wrote stating that he would give her an allowance of not less than £400 a year, on condition that she did not live with him again in England. He said that in such a course there was no shame or disgrace, but that it was merely a private arrangement, and it was for the best that they should go their own ways. A letter was read in Court, showing that Mrs. Fisher, in August of 1920, had accepted the conditions imposed by her husband.

Mr. Fisher was Minister of Trade and '""ustoms from 1912 until 1914, when hp 'ost his seat. Wellington City. lie hfr* lived in England for many years.