A DIVORCE CASE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11877, 28 April 1899, Page 5

A DIVORCE CASE.

[Pub Fiusss Association/1 WELLINGTON, April 2?,

Mr Justice Edwards to-day gave judgment in a divorce case, Dawson v. Dawson, which his Honor recently heard when on circuit on the west coast of the South Island. The case presented peculiar circumstances. The petitioner claimed that his wife passed a week in tho hut of the Corespondent, and that they committed adultery. His Honor said that ordinarily the fact that a married woman passed a week in a htit, containing one room only, with a man not her husband, must lead to the conclusion that she was guilty of adultery, but the circumstances in this case were extraordinary. Tho evidence showed that for some time prior to September, 1897, the respondent had given way to intemperance, and that the petitioner took no means to secure her safety. His Honcr was satisfied that if anything improper took place in the hut, tho woman was not in a tit state to be conscious of it, and that her husband leit her there with tho hope and intention that she would commit adultery, and furnish him with the means of procuring a divorce. If adultery had been proved, tho petitioner must be held to have connived at it. The petition was dismissed with costs, petitioner and respondent, as between solicitor and client, taxed by the Registrar at Hokitika ; £25 was allowed to the co-respondent with costs, and all court fees and witnesses' expenses. -