DEFAULTING HUSBAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume LI, Issue 5345, 4 December 1919, Page 7

DEFAULTING HUSBAND.

CRUELTY AND DRUNKENNESS. SEPARATION AND MAINTENANCE ORDERS MADE. Emily Catherine Jane Fanning (Mr Bradley Smith) sought in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Mr J. S. Barton, S.M., an order for separation maintenance and guardianship of her ten children against her husband, Thomas Michael Fanning . Mr Bradley Smith, in opening the action, said that the parties concerned had been married 20 years and there were 10 children of the marriage, five of whom were dependent on the mother for support. Ever since the parties had been married defendant had been guilty of cruelty and habitual drunkenness. He gave way to the use of obscene language, knocked his wife and children about in his drunken fits, punching and striking them with his closed fists, and thowing things at them. When drunk he would turn his wife out of her home. He had failed to maintain them and they were dependent on charity, having to rely mainly upon the help the wife obtained from her own people. Emily Catherine Jane Fanning, in the course of her evidence, said her husband recently turned her out of her home and threw a tea pot after her. He frequently struck her when he was drunk. He was drunk six

nights out of seven. Sometimes his earnings had been £8 or £9 a week and he only gave her £2 10s. He beat a boy and a girl black and blue. He had thrashed witness so often that it had become a habit. To Defendant: You paid the rent, and for the coal and meat. You gave me £3 for November. Thomas Michael Panning denied the charges made against him. He stated he had always given his money to his wife. His average earnings for the last two years were £2 10s a week. When employed at the Taruheru Freezing Works his weekly earnings were about £5. To Mr Smith: He sometimes took home one, two or three bottles of beer with him. His Worship said that the charges of cruelty and failure to maintain his wife and children were comprised in the charge of drunkenness. A man who never earned more than £5 a week and had a wife and children to keep, and spent 10s to £1 a week on liquor and tobacco, conld not maintain them. He would make an order for separation, the wife to have tile custody of the children. A maintenance order for £2 5s per week would also be made, defendant to make the first payment on December 8 and weekly from that date.