DECREE GRANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 269, 12 November 1937, Page 13

DECREE GRANTED.

WOMAN'S suggestion; CHtiIGE OF HUSBANDS. JUDGE BELIEVES WIFE. SYDNEY, November 4. In the Divorce Court a. wife alleged that her husband had "just laughed" when another wife had suggested * change of husbands. The wife, Mrs. Harriott Coleman, was granted a decree nisi in her petition for divorce against Ernest Walter Coleman,a musician, on the ground of his adultery with Mrs. Lilian Barrett, between January 1, 1930, and June 30, 1931. Coleman's defence was that his wife had condoned and connived at the adultery. Mrs. Coleman, in evidence, said that in 1930 she met Mrs. Barrett at a party. Mrs. Barrett had called on her, and later they had a conversation, which witness reported to her husband. "I told him that Mrs. Barrett had said to me, 'What about a change!' "When Asked what she meant, she replied, 'My husband has a longing for you.' He Only Latithed. "I told her that I had more respect for my daughter," said Mrs. Coleman. * "My husband only laughed at me." "Mrs. Barrett wanted me to misconduct myself with her husband." Mrs. Coleman said that on one occasion, while she was living at Granville, her husband had gone to Leichhardt, and waited till he saw Barrett leave his home. Her husband had told her that he then went into the house, and spent the day with Mrs. Barrett. Mrs. Colema.i said that because of this she never again lived with her husband as man and wife. She had remained with him for six years afterwards, because of ill-health and lack of money. They had moved to Leichhardt a few doors away from the Barretts. Nothing Against Wife. "At that time my husband went to see Mrs. Barrett nearly every morning," said Mrs. Coleman. "I. asked him to give her up because of the child, but he just laughed at me." Cross-examined by Mr. R. M. Sturt, for the hqsband, Mrs. Coleman denied that she and her husband and the Barretts had lived "flagrantly and openly in adultery." Coleman, in evidence, admitted adultery with Mrs. Barrett, but said that his wife had never complained to him about it. He said that he and his wife had lived together as man and wife till the time the divorce papers were served. The judge said there was nothing to support an allegation of an exchange of wives against Mrs. Coleman, who bad entirely denied it.