DIVORCE SOUGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 35, 10 August 1933, Page 13

DIVORCE SOUGHT

AUCKLAND PETITION

EX-M.P. AS CO-RESPONDENT

MISCONDUCT ALLEGED

(By Telegraph.) < (Spocial to the "Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. The case in which Kenneth Eahiri George Richardson is. petitioning for a divorce from his wife, Mona Mary Richardson, and claiming £1000 damages from Harry Reginald Jenkins, ex-M.P. for Parnoll, with whom he alleges she committed adultery at the Waipapakauri Hotel, is being continued today. The petitioner gave evidence' along the lines of his counsel's address yesterday. ' • ■ In the course of the opening address of counsel-for the petitioner it was mentioned that Richardson is a son of Sir George Richardson. Cross-exaniined, tho petitioner said that on more than one occasion he had tendered his resignation to Jenkins as manager of a Tung oil property at Te Paki. He had heard that statements were being made to the effect that ho (Richardson) had been drinking and living with Maoris, which statements he was satisfied originated with employees and were purely inventions. Ho admitted that there- was a girl living near To Paki with whom his name had been coupled. He was in her company frequently at Te Paki, and sho had visited his place both before and after his wife left him. There might havo been talk about this girl and himself, but the petitioner had only heard it from his wife and Jenkins, who was antagonistic to him. • In further exchanges Richardson said that his wife wanted a divorce, too, and sho. actually did take proceedings on July 26 for restitution of conjugal rights. Fifteen days earlier he received ,a letter from his wife suggesting a reconciliation, but on July 14 ho wrote stating that he regrotted ho could not entertain this. In September he received notice that his wife would move for a divorce because he had failed to comply with the order for restitution. Counsel: Things would begin to look rosy for you then, and you would regard yourself as "a free man"." Petitioner: I suppose so. _ Counsel: And no doubt you lost no time in writing to Miss Kember in Wellington giving her the glad news, and received a letter which unfortunately we haven't got? Petitioner: Probably so. Counsel: Now, isn't it a fact that you didn't proceed with tho divorce petition because you hadn't got a job and couldn't maintain, having resigned the Tung oil managership, her and the two children; and that if she divorced you- you would have your freedom and could marry again, and in the words of her brother in a letter, to her about you she an the kiddies would bo ditched! Petitioner: Not at all. Counsel: You have spent some months in Wellington since you? wife left you! Petitioner: Yes. ' '. Counsel: >Vhere did you stay? Petitioner: With the Kcmbers. Tho ease is proceeding.