PETITIONS FOR DIVORCE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27403, 16 July 1954, Page 9

PETITIONS FOR DIVORCE

A decree nisi, on the grounds stated, was granted the petitioner in each of the following undefended petitions for divorce heard before Mr Justice McGregor in the Supreme Court yesterday:— Separation.—Walter George Hurst Burney (Mr P. T. Mahon) v. Constance Wilhelmina Burpey. Adultery.—Michael John Champion (Mr K. A. Gough) v. Alison Mary Champion and Albert Flute named as co-respondent. Decision Reserved His Honour reserved his decision on a petition by Lionel Edwin Hodgson, an engineer (Mr J. G. Leggat) for divorce from Annie Paton Hodgson (Mr R. W. Edgley) on the ground of desertion. Mrs Hodgson opposed her husband’s petition and that she be granted a decree on the ground of separation. The case for the petitioner was that he met his wife in Scotland when he was a ship’s engineer during the war. They were married in Glasgow in May, 1943, and came to New Zealand in June, 1946. She was constantly unhappy from the time the ship entered Wellington harbour. Her father became ill and she returned to Scotland in October, 1947. She was to return to New Zealand but had not done so. The petitioner based his petition on her desertion on or about September 25, 1949. He had continued to pay maintenance all the time.

Mr Edgley submitted that the correspondence between Hodgson and his wife showed there was an agreement to separate. There was an agreement in fact and the petitioner had accepted it.