PETITION FOR DIVORCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 21 May 1926, Page 5

PETITION FOR DIVORCE.

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES,

LEAVE TO DEFEND GRANTED.

(BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, May .20. An. unusual divorce case canie before *" Mr Justice MacGregor to-day, when an application was madid and- granted, for leave, to defend! a petition' by • James Godfrey Frobshior, late of the~ Royal Navy and now licensee ‘of th e ; Albion Hotel, for-judicial -separation y from his> wife, Florence Irene, on the.., grounds of cruelty. . . •• Mr Jackson, for the respondent, said that the suit was brought by the husband after less than four years of;; J marriage. He was: 2S> and she 24. She ~ -*■ -‘ l had informed him that she did not understand. the proceedings or the meaning- of the papers- served: on her in the v matter of the petition, ■which alleged persistent cruelty, but, on the other hand, said counsel, she had been Sub-”" jeeted to many acts of cruelty, had' been beaten, been given black cy.es, ■ and had been bruised all o ver. her body... Mr, Scott, for the petitioner, denied that the wife was unintelligent, but said. that, she had told her husband that she- -would put him to all -the e and expense she could. The inference,! *1 ? ; ■was that the c-aJse was to he held up in the meantime, as Frobisliier. might lose liis license owing to happenings- in . the hotel. Botltesi and jugs were being'tlirown at him, and he was afraid- logo home .after dark. . .. . His Honour: Cannot some arrangement be made for her to go somewhere else ?

Mr (Scott: She refuses to leave thehouse. , ■ The Judge said that he considered the woman should have the right to- defend herself, no: matter, how she- had.-, ignored the procedure: Leave to'de--. . fend was granted, and. the Judge:advised that the wife should leave the - premises.