AFTER THREE MONTHS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 147, 23 June 1924, Page 6

AFTER THREE MONTHS

WOMAN'S CLAIM FOR MAIN-

TENANCE.

(01 TEIEGBAPH.—SPECIAL TO THE POST.)

AUCKLAND, 21et June. "I have no sympathy with these women who throw up a billet, catch hold of old men, and after a row expect to be pensioned off for life," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday when a woman sought maintenance from her husband, a. retired railway servant at Mercer, to whom she was married three months

Mr. Schramm, who appeared for the wife, said that the husband's declaration was that he would not keep her, even for the King of England. The Magistrate : "This is a case of a middle-aged woman marrying'an old fool."

Mr. Luxford (for the husband) : "She does not call herself middle-aged. She says she is 36. I think 66 is more like it." .

The Magistrate : "She may have a mental defect, but that is no reason why the country should keep her." Mr., Luxford : "She was a housekeeper until she got into the toils of a matrimonial bureau."

i Mr. Schramm said the woman had declared that defendant's grandchild was born out of wedlock, because the parents were married at a registry office, and his reply had been that such doctrine was absolutely wicked. Evidence was given by the husband that he was a railway employee who was retired because of mental unfitness. His pension was £7 8s 4d per month, and he made a few pounds out oE grazing land which he owned at Mercer. The Railway Department had taken 53 acres for railwaymen's cottages, -and he was to receive £1500, but he had a loan of £1000 from the State Advances Department and £1500 from a mercantile firm. The balance of the land, 150 acres, was worth about £10 per acre. The Magistrate : "Perhaps that was the bait." (Laughter.)

Mr. Schramm : "Do you swear your property is not valued at £10,000?"

The Magistrate : "Do not be absurd. The whole of Mercer is not worth £10,000."

The / woman, in reply to a question from the Bench, said her age was 35. The Magistrate : "Thirty-five ! She has got the figures the wrong way round."

"This woman got hold of this man through a registry office," continued Mb. Hunt. "She was earning good money as a housekeeper, and was in one place for seven years. After being married for one month she made the most horrible accusations against her husband, Which allegations proved to be absolutely unfounded and ■ creations of her own mind. She left him and started proceedings in which I made no order. Since then I have a medical certificate that she is unfit for work at present. As long as she thinks she can live on her husband she will never find work. I will make an order for. 10s per week."