Wife Accused Of Overbearing Ways, Religions Nagging

Northern Advocate, 30 November 1939, Page 6

Wife Accused Of Overbearing Ways, Religions Nagging

f Special to “Northern Advocate ”] AUCKLAND, This Day.

A wife’s constant nagging, quarrelsome nature, overbearing ways and narrpw religion were alleged today to have caused the failure of a mar-

nage. . The allegations were made in the Supreme Court by Mr R. A. Singer. Percy Alexander McDowell, Warkworth, storekeeper, sought divorce from Nora Evelyn McDowell, who opposed the petition. McDowell served with the New Zealand Forces on Gallipoli and France, said Mr Singer, and when wounded in France he met Mrs McDowell, a Welsh woman, who , was nursing in an English hospital. , . . After having known her a fortnight, he sailed for New Zealand, and having got the management of a store at Tangiteroria, he kept up correspondence with her. She Came to N.Z.

Eventually she came to New Zealand, he having forwarded the fare, and they were married in July, 1921. It would be shown that petitioner bought the Tangiteroria store, and later got a store in Warkworth. Mrs McDowell worked with him, but the evidence would be that her overbearing ways and religious nagging made the petitioner miserable. The evidence would show that she interfered with customers and employees in matters of religion and declined to deal with certain wholesale merchants because ”they were not Godly.” Objected To Freemasonry.

She also objected to the petitioner being a Mason, Mr Singer further alleged, and made a distressing scene with 'a prominent Freemason who visited him. She regarded Freemasonry as a brotherhood of atheism. She insisted on the adoption of a child against her husband’s wishes and when he finally stopped a legal adoption he found the child had been entered at the local school under his name. It would also be alleged that Mrs McDowell grossly overbought stock for the drapery department of the store, and things came to such a pass that travellers found they only had to take a Bible with them into the shop to get orders from her. Traveller With Bible.

As an instance, added Mr Singer, one traveller with a Bible sold her more than 400 pairs of corsets, and in a last sale McDowell had managed to get rid of 200 of them at 1/ a pair Mr Singer said they complained that Mrs McDowell took up the attitude that the Lord came before her husband. V , Finally, in July, 1936, when McDowell was worrying about the overbuying and financial difficulties, she told her, husband that, in answer _to prayer, God had told her to leave him. Went To Mcrrinsville.

He had before this suggested a separation. ♦ He then said she had better go and pack before she changed her' mind. She then did go, and stayed with her brother and his wife, who were managing a shop in Morrinsville, which McDowell had bought and was in his name. , ' . He sent her £8 a month, but since then there had been a constant stream of letters from her. Separation Agreement. In September, 1936, they had a written separation agreement, whereby they arranged to have the Morrinsville property in Mrs McDowell’s name and the Warkworth property in McDowell’s name. . There was a curious clause in the agreement that she was not to reside within 30 miles of Warkworth. Subsequent letters were received by McDowell from his wife, asking to be taken back. ; McDowell gave evidence stating the circumstances of his marriage as outlined by Mr Singer. While they were still in Tangiterona he .and his wife had quarrelled, he said, on account of his wife’s interference in the business. Changed Churches. Later, at Warkworth, his wife changed from the Presbyterian Church to another and was then baptised by a travelling evangelist. Her religious outlook became narrower.

She conceived a prejudice against Freemasons, objected to his being in the brotherhood and-caused a scene with a visiting Freemason. Their friends fell aw,ay, on account of the wife’s religious arguments with them, and the circle of visitors to the house was narrowed down to just her particular friends. Threats To Leave.

The wife would not associate with his tennis or howling friends because she said they were Godless. Eventually, he threatened at different times to leave her if she did not behave differently. He built a tennis court at his home, but it fell into disuse because the wife insisted that his friends should use it only at her invitation. She would not go out with him in the motor car on Sunday and called him a heathen for going in the car that day. The case is proceeding.