CHARGE DISMISSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 142, 18 June 1934, Page 9

CHARGE DISMISSED.

MAINTENANCE QUESTION. CARE OF TWO CHILDREN. A charge that, while without reasonable cause he was failing to provide his wife with adequate maintenance, he was attempting to leave New Zealand without the written permission of a magistrate, was denied by Percy Norman Martin, a relief worker, in the Police Court, before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., this morning. After hearing the evidence the magistrate dismissed the charge. May Elizabeth Martin said that she had been married to accused for nine years and that there were two children. Her husband was not supporting her. The children had been with witness' mother until last Monday, when witness, with the permission of the Child Welfare Department, had taken cure of them, ae she had heard that accused intended to take them to strangers. Witness said she had not been living with her husband since February," when she had left home. Accused (from the dock): She left me six times. In evidence, accused said that he was supporting the children and wanted to have the care of them. Mr. Hunt: You have no place to keep' them. Accused: I would soon get a place. Mr. Hunt: What place? You can't keep them like rabbits. Accused said that he would board the children out and would board with them. His wife, he said, had left him a number of times, but he was soft-hearted and had taken her back again, lie was getting a living and had no intention of leaving New Zealand. In dismissing the charge, the magistrate said that he was not at all satisfied that the case was in order. The hearing of an application for a maintenance order against Martin in respect of his wife and children was adjourned for a week in order to allow further inquiries to be made.