TO GO TO PRISON

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 134, 10 June 1927, Page 12

TO GO TO PRISON

MAINTENANCE CASE

'•EXTREME FEELING BETWEEN ■ PARTIES"' •

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

GISBOENK, 9th June. A most unusual case in connection witu a maintenance order came before Mr fe,. , f^™^ 831:- in the Gisborne Mag' strates Court to-day. The case was one Rn fi m *Vede"ek -Brougham Whittraore Bousfield proceeded against his wife ou an application for.his release from prison ,In March,-Boosffield took similar proceedings here, and >-as released by the Magistrate's order^foer having served h£n we,eks°f th\ six months' hard labour imposed, although up to the time of incarceration he had complied with the terms ot the maintenance order. Set at liberty on 14th March, Bousfield found employment. A week or so later, he paid the current maintenance and paid the arrears at the rate of three times the amount he was ordered by the Court to pay ncr week. Hjs wife almost immediately summoned him again, the case to be heard at Kawene, where she was living. She obat lnKL an°thf' °^ er-from the Magistrate at Kawcne for his imprisonment for arrears under the order, and Bousfield was mornin" reSted '" Gisborne yesterday .Proceedings for his release were later h<f. d .bs.Mr. E. C. Lewey, S.M. Counsel for defendant outlined the facts on the lines stated above, and submitted that tne JVlagistrate was entitled to. review the case and decide whether.Bousfield was to be imprisoned. •, ; \ 'Bousfield, in evidence; said" he was imprisoned in February, despite the fact that ne- had complied with the order, bub was released here on 14th March. On 3rd April he obtained employment at 12s per day, and had to provide horses and food for.. himself. The job! was only tempor- I ary, but he was compelled to take this i as _no other was offering. Since then he j had paid £23 into Court in maintenance and arrears. He was, on 27th May, summoned to appear at Rawene for alleged tallure to comply with the order, but having no money it was impossible for him to attend, and, apart from that, he would have lost his job and his wife would have had to go Without her money. He then lodged an application for a variation of the order, and applied for an adjourn-' ment of the Jiearinig' of .the summons agamst him to Rawehe, but: this latter request was refused. 'He ivas" sentenced to a month's gaol, arid jvras arrested this v morning. The summonj wasissued^against him in Rawene by his wife almost immediately after he was released from gaol here in March and in spite of the fact that he^had keptup more than the ordered payments. ■•;:;;;■ r^-^V.v

The Magistrate; in' reviewing the case, said counsel for.-. the :•' defence • Had urged that section 63Tg£ive the Court authority to decide practically■ that.'the original order should not be made. IHe did not take that view, as he heard that the section merely •uthorised the Magistrate making the order, or any otl?er Magistrate, to release the defendant if he saw fit, but the crux of • the question was the : provision in a clause of the Act providing for payment of a fine, or any sum which the Court might see fit to order to be paid by defendant. It seemed to him that the object and intention of the clause was not ■that the Magistrate should reviews the facts only. There must be extreme feeling between the parties, which was deplorable, but he had no authority to interfere, and unfortunately tlje order must stand. The information would be dismissed.