HUSBAND AND WIFE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20636, 16 August 1941, Page 4

HUSBAND AND WIFE

INCIDENT IN COURT BROKEN COURT ORDER ‘‘We are fighting this war against dictators—that is what the boys are fighting for; and 1 am not going to have a dictator in my home,” said Henry Mearns, of Moturoa, during the hearing of a charge against him before Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., in New Plymouth, of procuring liquor during the currently of a prohibition order. “Do you mean that your wife is a dictator?” asked the magistrate. “Yes, I do,” said the accused. This all arose through Mearn- saying that it was his wife’ nagging habit that made him angry and that he was not, at the time the police came to his place, under the influence of liquor, although two police constables stated he was. “A man can stand a certain amount of nagging,” said the accused, “but when it gets beyond that it makes him that he may not be responsible for what he does.” Constable A. H. Canning, of Moturoa, said he was called to Mearns’ place and found him under the influence of liquor. He complained about his wife’s .nagging tongue. Mrs. Mearns Went outside and came back with a part bottle of liquor, which she said Mearns had “planted” outside. Mearns stated that his wife brought the bottle of liquor out of one of the rooms, and that he had nothing to do with it and had not seen it before. He asked Constable Canning to take her away, because, if a man got too much nagging he might not be responsible for what he did. In reply to the magistrate, the constable said that Mrs. Mearns was also addicted to drink. Mrs. Mearns was called by the magistrate to the witness-box, and said that her husband’s drinking habits and his abusive language were more than she could bear. Both parties to the difference became so talkative that the magistrate had to order them to be quiet, and he finished the proceedings by convicting Mearns for a breach of his order, and fined him 30s.