A BRUTAL HUSBAND.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 158, 20 June 1911, Page 3

A BRUTAL HUSBAND.

WIFE’S APPLICATION FOR SEPARATION.

PEE PRESS ASSOCIATION. | Dunedin, June 19. ‘The children are half starved, and there is no furniture in the house,” said a wife in the Police Court this morning when she applied for a separation order against her husband, William Newton. Jane Elizabeth Newton, the wife, said there were four children, all half starved. They had no furniture, only a wooden bedstead and one chair. Some cooking utensils were given them. The defendant had not provided them with food or clothing. The children had gone to school without breakfast. They had cried with hunger. She had seen them eat raw cabbage and raw sago. The husband had kicked and struck her, bruising her and bleeding her mouth very often. He had thrown the only chair they had at her, breaking it. He had thrown lots of other things at her. He had held a razor over her throat with the children crying round. He also used the most filthy language in the presence of the children. She had gone out to work and had been illtreated when she returned home at night. The defendant would not work. He had also illtreated the children. Witness denied that the trouble was caused through a man named Preston. She had run to his house for protection when the defendant threatened her with a razor.

Evidence was also given by Harold Newton, Police Sergeant Emmerson, Police-constable Herd, William Parr and Eupheinia Neverson.

The defence contended that the whole trouble had been caused through Preston and the defendant’s wife. When Newton came back from Duntroon, where he had been working, he caught Preston in the house and gave him a hiding. The defendant said he was prepared to maintain his wife if she would keep away from Preston. The children were half-starved because his wife was too lazy to cook for them. A separation order was granted, the defendant to pay £1 per week for maintenance and the wife to have the custody of the children. On a charge of assauling Preston. Newton was fined £l. with costs £l.l/-.