NO WILFUL DEFAULT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 135, 4 December 1935, Page 15

NO WILFUL DEFAULT

MAINTENANCE CLAIM

CANDIDATE FOR PARLIAMENT

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, December 3.

A candidate for the Bay of Islands seat at the General Election, Robert Edward Hornblow, appeared in the Magistrate's Court before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., charged with failing to comply with a maintenance order for 7s 6d a week in respect of his former wife. 'Questioned, by the maintenance officer, the defendant said he conducted a weekly newspaper in North Auckland which, however, had lost headway rapidly in the bad times. All the takings were paid into the bank, and witness Mrew out about £4 a week, £3 of which he paid in wages to an assistant.

The maintenance officer: You stood for Parliament, did you not?

Defendant: I did. The maintenance officer: What did it cost you? .

Defendant: Nothing; my supporters paid.

Questioned by the Magistrate, the defendant said he. had lost his deposit. The money had been lent to him by a relative.

The defendant continued that his wife went away with anpther man, the defendant agreeing to her obtaining a divorce, the expenses of which he paid. "At 40-odd years of age I was worth £20,000," he added.

The maintenance officer said the defendant's former wife was destitute at Dunedin. Arrears of maintenance amounted to over £30. :

"It is apparently more profitable to be a politician than the proprietor of a newspaper," remarked the Magistrate, who said there did not appear to be wilful default, and the matter would be dismissed. , . - i CASE AGAINST DENTIST. yStated in evidence by his wife to have contested a Maori seat under his Maori name, Selwyn Hovell, dentist, of Waihi, was also charged with failing to comply with a maintenance order.

In a letter to the Court the defendant said his business had been badly affected by the mining strike.

A sentence of two months' imprisonment was imposed, which the Magistrate said would be suspended as long as the defendant maintained the current payments and paid 5s a week off the arrears.