PITIFUL CASE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 14 February 1930, Page 4

PITIFUL CASE

A YOUNG WOMAN’S FLIGHT. jf# • DRUNKEN HUSBAND TO BLAME. • . . (By Telegraph —Press Association.) PALMERSTON N.. Feb. 12. \ story with elements of the tragic was unfolded in the Magistrate’s Court when a voung married woman stood in the dcuk charged with attempted suicide. “More sinned against than sinning’’ was the description applied to the accused by the seniorsergeant. and the evidence bore out the assertion. . “Tliis woman has been worried and knocked about by her husband until she has about reached the end of her mental tether,” said Senior-Sergeant Whitehou.se. “Last night the husband was in such a drunken state that he ivih locked up. He threw his wife and children out of their home, and when the woman in her distress said that She would end it all in the river, he replied that that was the best thing she ould do. A man says that he stopped accused from throwing her baby in the river, but it appears that Sim collapsed on the bank and the baby rolled in. The woman is not so much to blame as the husband, who has spoiled her life.” Further details ox the case were supplied bv accused’s solicitor. Mr A. J. McLeaVev. who stated that the husband was in receipt of a salary of £3OO a year and spent nra r tically the whole in drink. The family was in destitute circumstances. Only yesterday all their furniture had been sold up, and they were in debt everywhere. The husband had been on leave from employment for some weeks, and had spent the whole time jsoaking drink. The woman had just come out of the hospital, where she had been under doctor’s care with nervous prostration. An argument had developed after tea at their house, and the unfortuante woman find said that the only way out was for her to throw herself ' into the river. The husband had replied: “The best thing you can do is to throw yourself in.” The unfortunate woman had taken her small children, and had wheeled them in a push cart down Ferguson Street to the river. However, she stated that she had no intention in the world of carrying out her threat. Her people were willing to give her a home, and she proposed to obtain a separation from her husband, although she considered that, if he was living in a no-license district, he might even vet have a chance. Counsel asked the magistrate to be lenient with his client. She had undergone a great deal. and there was no doubt that she was at the end ; of her mental tether. She had three small children, two girls aged 7 and 9 years, and a boy aged 4 years and 11 months. “If her people will take her, I will convict and discharge her,” said the magistrate. An order was made for the suppression of the woman’s name. The husband was then placed in the do *l< and charged with being found helplessly drunk m Ferguson Street. On the application of the police, he was remanded for a week in order that he might he placed under oh- 1 serration. I