MILKMAN-POET

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 September 1927, Page 12

MILKMAN-POET

GRIEVANCE AGAINST N.Z. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 7. “Poets are badly treated in this land of white savages and All Blacks, as they are feted and laurelled and crowned in Merrie England.” This is the complaint made by Geoffrey Wladislas Vaile Potocki De Montalk in a letter to his wife, produced in the Supreme Court yesterday. “What is your husband’s occupation?” Mr Justice Adams asked Mrs Ada Lilian de Montalk when she appeared in support of an application for an order for restitution of conjugal rights against de Montalk. “He is a poet.” she explained. She added that when they were in Auckland he had a milk-round, but he compromised with his creditors, and she lost £lOOO of her own money. They went to live at Hoon Hay, near Spreydon. They lived in a garage while he built a house, but he got no further than the foundations. He never gave her money. She thought that he should find work. In the letter, produced, he referred to her as “the Countess de Montalk.” He would not work and only wrote poetry, and they did not have much to live on. His Honor said that in the marriage register de Montalk was described as a law clerk, but in court he was described as a poet. Mr Batchelor (for Mrs Montalk): He has been a law clerk and a poet and a milkman and all sorts of things. He is described as a poet because he published a book of poems. lie has a habit of writing poetry for the newspapers. His Honor: We can give a good deal of indulgence to a citizen who is good enough to describe Christchurch as “The Holy City." The order was granted. His Honor: I see that the gentleman is leaving New Zealand to take “the golden road to Samarkand.” You had better have him served as soon as possible. Mr Batchelor: We propose to do that.