SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1315, 19 December 1911, Page 3

SUPREME COURT

THE MEWHJXXEY CHILDREN. In the Suprorac Court yesterday before Jfr Justice Chapman and Mr. Justice Sim, Oliver Mewhinney app led for permission to remove his two from the boarding school*, in which .hey had Wii placed by order of the Court of Wai. The 'order had inado.no provi< on for the Chrishna.- vacation, and it appeared thai. Hip schools had no provision for keeping boarder, during the holiday He therefore asked for permhsion'to take the children to his.parents' home at Hampdsn, Otago, until Mio school should resume. _ Mr \. Gray, who appeared for Mrs. Mewhinney, opposed the application on several grounds. . After lengthy .argument Mr. Justice Chapman said that the duty of the Court was lii't to consider the interests of the children. No doubt some consideration "liould be shown for tlio feelings of the linrents, but the interests of the children must be paramount. The father had Ijmmi givoii lcftal custody ol the children — amMliat was no more than, retransferiii" him his riglit—but I lie Court of Api)i"il had ordered that the children must 1..,-' placed in schools. The po.-it.ion no«- «■!!•; Ih:it neither parent had a home, nr ill aiiyralc, one whero their Honours winihl' semi the children. It was impossible to d(i anything to reconcile the conilictiii!! intercuts, but the Court had before it the fact that the school authorities did not carry mi an establishment lor the boiirding-of c.liildreii in the school holiday-. No doubt I hi? matter wa-. not Di-oniiiiPiitlj before tlv Cnnrt nf Appr;il v.-hen it mi.de the urrler. and their Honour- had to deal with it a; they >wv it. now. The exigencies of th" circum>»ance> rsquircd that the children should be Iβ-

moved from the school, and the onlj order that Hioir Honour- euiild make v;a* tho onn asked for by Mewliinm-v. lie. would ho allowed to ronuive Ihr-in. take Ihcni to the home of thuir gnimlpareiits in llampdon. ami return (hem alter Iliv holiday:-. i;ki-'i-;i;rj-;d ihgiiei;. In action—Public Trustee v. Pilking-fnn-which came before Mr. Justice Chapman in the Supreme. Court some lime i>#o. has been moved iulo the Conn of Appeal for argument. H is an application in the e?iate of the late Anders Anderson, i-liocnfiirinor. ot T'eatherston, and concerns the rights ot an adopted child under the will uf her foster father. APPEAL CASE. Mr. Justice Chapman and Mr. Justice Sim wero on the Bench in the Court ot Appeal yesterday, when Mr. H. D. Bell, K.C., mentioned the case of Baird and others v. Fergusson and others. Counsel asked that his motion, for leave tor plaintiffs to appeal to the Privy Council, should stand over until the next regular sittings in ISI2. The application was granted. in Tho Court afterwards adjourned until the next regular sittings in the New Year.