EXTRAORDINARY PETITION

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1928, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY PETITION

ALLEGATIONS BY PACCAR TON ' MAX. WELLINGTON, July 10. A most unusual petition signed by William Alfred Hpayitt, of 22 Mayfair Street, Lower Riocarton, superannuatled railway employee, was presented ! by Mr Iyyle. It \vns road in the : House by the Clerk. i Petitioner alleges that his formei ! son-in-law, Robert Stewart Taylor, builder, of Fendalton, petitioned for divorce on the grounds that liis wife was of unsound mind, confined in a mpntal hospital. A decree nisi was granted in 1925. Petitjoner says that Tqvlor’s evidence that his wile was mentally insane three months after marriage and had been continuously a person of unsound mind for seven years immediately preceding the film? of the divorce petition was false and uncorroborated. Taylor remarried in Petitioner alleges that Tavloi s father died in a mental hospital in 1923.

Petitioner says that Taylor’s evidence that petitioner was an alcoholic is false and incapable of being proved. He also says that additional false evidence was given by Taylor, who said that another daughter of petitioner was of unsound mind, and a deceased daughter was a mental defective. These statements, petitioner claims, arc grossly untrue, improper and unjustliable, and should be expunged from the records of the Divorce Court proceedings.

The stigma, he says, is harder to bear because living members of the family are daily moving amongst the public. Petitioner’s health has been affected in consequence of the allegations, and he feels that he should mako every effort to clear the family name of a stain undeservedly cast upon it. Petitioner asks that he bo allowed to appear before ;i select committee to prove his statements.