SECOND MARRIAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 8

SECOND MARRIAGE.

PARTED SIX YEARS.

HUSBAND SEEKS DIVORCE.

WIFE OPPOSES PETITION

Filing an answer in which she contended that the separation between herself and her husband on April 17, 1931, was due to the wrongful acts and conduct of the petitioner in that he had wilfully failed to provide her with adequate maintenance since their marriage, Clara Ritchie (Mr. I. Goldstine) defended an action for divorce brought by her husband, Francis Montgomery Moore (Mr. R. A. Singer), in the Supreme Court this morning before Mr. Justice Smith. • Respondent also alleged that petitioner had exhibited coolness and indifference towards her and on divers occasions between December, 1930, and March, 1931, he had struck and kicked her. The petition was based on separation of over three years, a separation order having been made bv a magistrate on April 17, 1931. Mr. Sinjrer outlined the case for petitioner. He said that at the time of the marriage in 1924 the parties were each 41 years of ajre. Ritchie was a widower with two sons by his first wife, and the respondent was a spinster. In the later years of their married life, said Mr. Singer, Mrs. Ritchie became exceedingly difficult. Her health began to fail and she began to suffer all kinds of imaginary complaints. She Lad. an idea something was the matter with her heart, but she declined to carry out the instructions of her doctors. When the action for separation was before the Magistrate's Court no notes of evidence were taken by the magistrate. Since the order was made the petitioner had regularly paid his wife maintenance. The petitioner claimed, in his amended petition, that he and respondent were in fact separated in March, 1931, prior to the making of the Court order, and the separation was due to the respondent failing to fulfil all her dnties as a wife and not to any wrongful acts on his part. Petitioner gave evidence on the lines of his counsel's opening.