WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 120, 23 May 1941, Page 8

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

IN DIVORCE SUITS A MAINTENANCE FORFEIT The statement that a wife who did not defend a petition for restitution of conjugal rights thereby admitted desertion, and was not entitled to claim maintenance, was made by Mr. Justice Callan in the Supreme Court to-tlay. He added that this should be publicly known, as he had had applications for maintenance from divorced wives, and they and their counsel were startled on being informed that they had no claim where the divorce had been obtained for failure to make restitution of conjugal lights.

The occasion of this statement, was a petition by Albert Henry James (Mr. B. H. Bennett) for a decree ordering his wife, Doris Howard James, to return to him. Petitioner said that when shifted early this year to the country, two and a half years

after their marriage, he left the wife liehind for a few days till he made accommodation arrangements. When he wrote for her slie declined to come. He made a personal visit to her. She had actually agreed to accompany him hack to a house he had got for her. when a talk with an older sister changed her mind. Subsequent letters by him proved unavailing. The wife's mother said she thought hei - daughter was justified in her action, and it was impossible for her to go back to her husband. His Honor, who had perused some of the letters between the parties, said the husband impressed him as being genuinely anxious to have his wife back. He thought the parties were young enough to make a reconciliation successful. He would decree that, the wife should return to her husband within 28 days. "It should be made abundantly clear to this very young woman," his Honor added, "that if she does not obey the order of the Court it will never be any use for her to go to the Court to get maintenance from him. She will get the short answer that she was told to go home, and she didn't go."