SENT TO GAOL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 27, 14 January 1911, Page 9

SENT TO GAOL

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN. Wellington, Jan. 13. Oliver Mewhinney, Civil servant, appeared before Mr. Justice Edwards to-day under a writ of attachment in custody of the Regisi rar of the Supreme Court, at the instance of his wife, Netta Lena Mewhinney. who asked that he be committed to Wellington Gaol, in consequence of his having disobeyed two orders of the Court in connection with divorce proceedings between the parties. Last year the Court had ordered that Mrs. Mewhinney should have access to two children of the marriage between January 2nd and the beginning of February, pending a final order of the Court as to which of the parties should ultimately have the custody of the children. Mewhiney refused to allow Mrs. Mewhinney to see the children.

During the hearing of the case it was made apparent that the Wellington Society for the Protection of Women and Children had approached the Chief Justice with reference to the trouble.

Judge Edwards said it appeared some unusual proceedings had taken place.. No society had the right to prejudice proceedings which had been conducted with such care. He could not do anything else than order Mewhinney’s detention until February, when further proceedings will be taken. Mewhinney told the Court he could not see his way, for the children’s sake, to agree to the order which the Court made last year.