A Negligent Husband.

Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 134, 8 June 1883, Page 2

A Negligent Husband.

? A case possessing features of public interest came before his Honour Judge Hardcastle at the monthly sitting of the District Court to-day, whon Dr. King, Superintendent of the Mount View Lunatic Asylum, proceeded against Mr. William Eobinson, a well-to-do settler at Blenheim, for the recovery of £131 10s, being the amount expended by tho Government upon tho maintenance of the defendant's wife in the institution under the charge of 'the plaintiff. Mr. Stafford appeared for the plaintiff. '1 here was no appearance of defendant, nor was he represented by counsel. Counsel having stated the particulars of the case, and explained that the aotion was the first of the kind brought in the colony under tho 39th section of the Lunatics Act of last session, called Dr. King, who deposed that ho was Superintendent of the Mount View Asylum. Amongst the patients was a woman named Xane Eobin3on, who was first committed to the institution on the 19th of June, 1878, on the authority of two Justices of the Peace. He could not Bay what day she entered the Asylum, as he was not there at that time. The order of committal was signed by Messrs. Dransfield and Wright. His Honour expressed a desire to know the exact date of the woman's admission, and Mr. L. W. Loveday, accountant in the Lunacy Department, waa placed in the 'box to prove this part of the case. The witness /stated that he knew a patient named Jane Eobinson. In June, of 1878, he received a notification, signed by J. H. Whitelaw, that a woman of that name was admitted on the 19th. He had not the slightest doubt that she became a patient about that day. It was his business to visit tho Asylum occasionally, and he recollected seeing her there about the time in question. He would swear that she was there in July. He believed she was there now. The cost of maintaining patients had been fixed at 3s per diem, which was a fair" charge. Dr. King, recalled, deposed that Jane Robinson was -still. in the Asylum. A guinea a week was a fair charge for maintenance. He hod received no money on account of the support of the patient, although he had issued instructions that application should be mode to the defendant for the amount owing. Mr. Stafford proved on oath the signatuies to the deed of committal. His Honour considered that counsel had failed to prove the exact date of admission, and, on the application of Mr. Stafford, the case was adjourned for a month to enable the omission to be supplied.