DIVORCE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 17 November 1943, Page 6

DIVORCE DAY

THIRTY PETITIONS

WIFE'S TRIP TO ENGLAND

A list of between thirty and forty undefended divorce petitions came before Mr. Justice Fair to-day for hearing. Stating that they had been married in England in 1916 and came to New Zealand in 1921, Charles Dixon (Mr. Dickson) petitioned for divorce from Mary Dixon (Mr. Holmden) on the ground of desertion. He said his wife went back to England in 1939 to try to induce her father to come to New Zealand. She took two of their children with her. She had not since returned, despite frequent requests from him, and shipping arrangements made by him. Eventually she ceased to correspond with him, after a letter in 1938 saying she did not intend to return to him A decree nisi was granted. Wives Unwilling Peter Edwin Hay ward (Mr. Armstrong), petitioning for an order directing his wife to return to him said he married Bette Ellen Withnall Hayward in December. 1941. He was a naval rating, "and he and his wife lived with the wife's parents, the wife declaring that his pay was insufficient for them to have a'home of their own. In July this year his wife's people told him his wife no longer wished to live with him. He spoke to his wife about it, and she said the same thing, with the result that he had to go elsewhere to live by himself. After the wife's father, who appeared on summons, had said his daughter had told him she no longer cared for petitioner or for married life, as she and her husband had nothing in common, his Honor made a decree directing the wife to return within 28 days.

Similar decrees were made on the following petitions:—Harold Kenneth Chesters Megson (Mr. Armstrong) v. Alma May Megson; Douglas Walter Roebuck (Mr. McLiver) v. Jean Euphemia Roebuck; Ernest Leslie Hicks (Mr. Cleal) ▼. Enid Mary Hicks. Mutual Separation On the ground of mutual separation for more than three years, decrees were granted as follows: —Ida Gladys Barker (Mr. Lovegrove), v. Percy Lawrence Barker (Mr. Wallace); Laura Elizabeth Berridge (Mr. Thomson), v. Reginald Spencer Berridge (Mr. Glaister); Geoffrey George Cooper (Mr. Goodall), v. Joyce Cooper; Ernest Royce Burr (Mr. Goodall), v. Iris Mabel Burr (Mr. McLiver); Kathleen Doris Brain (Mr. Ready), v. John Charles Hamley Brain; Avis Ethel Gollan (Mr. Tong), v. Walter Henry Gollan; Eleanor Alice Welham (Mr. Smytheman), v. Herbert Glen Welham; Flora Wisnesky (Mr. McLiver), v. Victor Daniel Wisnesky; John Coldwell Foote (Mr. McLiver), v. Vera Ngahua Foote (Mr. Fortune); Francis Michael Power (Mr. A. K. Turner), v. Margaret Kate Power; Kate Louise Francis (Mr, A. K. Turner), v. Cecil Ernest Anthony Francis; Dorothy May Kirkman (Mr. A. K. Turner), v. James Alexander Kirkman (Mr. Webb); John Francis Burrell (Mr. Sullivan), v. Mary Burrell (Mr. Cocker); Hector Edward Heaps (Mr. Sullivan), v. Gwendoline Flora Heaps; Rita Teresa Catton (Mr. Cleal), v. Ulric Ruiph Cattan; Sadie Muriel Morrow (Mr. Cleal), v. Cyril Albert Morrow. For Various Causes Decrees granted on the ground of failure to comply with orders for restitution of conjugal rights were:—James Hamilton Glover (Mr. Nutsford), v. Dorothy Ethel Glover; Ralph Randolph Marmont (Mr. Newberry), v. Marie Gwendoline Marmont; George Henry John Appleton (Mr. Smytheman), v. Molly Lilian Appleton. On the ground of desertion, decrees were granted as follows: —Robert Patterson Colquhoun (Mr. Sullivan), v. May Winifred Colquhoun; Eva lolanthe McGough (Mr. Sullivan), v. Robert Henry McGough. . _ On the ground of respondent's infidelity a decree nisi was granted in the petition Victor Rawle (Mr. Cleal), v. Margaret Cameron Rawle.