WIFE’S MAINTENANCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 October 1928, Page 3

WIFE’S MAINTENANCE

RICH MAN’S' MEANNESS (Australian Press Association.) (By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 29. How a husband got rid of his wife for a payment of £127 for her fares and outfit, was recounted in the Marylebone Court, when Mrs. Lily Barton sued her husband for maintenance. She was married in 1911, and her husband in 1925 was unemployed. She then agreed that he should go to live with his. mother, whilst she went to Canada. She signed an agreement in which her husband contracted to pay her passage. She supported herself in Canada for fifteen months, and then ill health necessitated her return to England. In the interim, her husband had inherited £60,000. He then threatened to shoot her and to tie up the money if she worried him. . The Magistrate, Mr. Halkett, ruled that the deed was valid, and he dismissed the case, stating: “Barton has a. wife, whom he is liable to maintain. He gets rid of her for £l27 —a cheap way of getting rid of a wife! I have never seen anything equal to it.”