STRANGE MARRIAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1922, Page 5

STRANGE MARRIAGE

MAN’S TALE OF THREATS

JUDGE WITHHOLDS DIVORCE.

(Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, June 15

In the Divorce Court, before Mr Justice Hosking, William George Staples sued for a dissolution of his marriage with Muriel Staples, on the ground that the parties had been separated by mutual consent for over three years. Counsel said that it was a strange case. The parties were married at a registry office, Wellington, on December 9, 1916, and had immediately parted, and had never since lived together. Petitioner stated that he had been engaged to the girl for two years, but was not in a position to make a home. Threats of breach of promise proceedings or of shooting by the girl’s father made to him by her mother in the office of the insurance company where he worked "(at a salary of £l5O a year) induced him to marry his wife immediately, she returning at once to Auckland, they having agreed to separate for six months. After two months his wife visited him when he was ill.

His Honor said that this did not look as though there had been any agreement to keep apart for six montlis. Petitioner did not seem to have tried to make a home for her or to have offered her one. Instead he seemed to have practically deserted her. The ftrfTier had evidently thought it was time for petitioner to marry the daughter. He (his Honor) could find no proof of an agreement to separate, or there was no reason why he should grant a divorce because both parties had agreed that a decree should be made. He would refer the matter to other Judges, and adourjned the hearing for that purpose.