£115,000 SECRETED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13814, 29 July 1908, Page 8

£115,000 SECRETED.

STRANGE MAINTENANCE CASE. A rather peculiar case was the last on the list at the Police Court yesterday, before Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M., when the -wife of William Wells, aged 70, sue'd him for maintenance. She said that her husband did not drink, and that his particular vice was avarice. Every Saturday night he went home and secreted £10, and now he had the enormous sum of £115,000 stowed away. There the lady seemed to contradict herself—for she asserted that she. had seen him count the whole £115,000, which was in notes. This the old man indignantly denied: he had no shares, bank account, buildings, real estate —the only tangible possession he had was rheumatism: "I'm destitute, Your Worship," he concluded. Wells was represented by a Maori lady, who explained to the magistrate that he was quite destitute. She said' that the parties were married a few yjars ago, aud it was shameful that the old man should be sued foi maintenance by a young woman like Mrs. Wells.

Mrs. Wells (ironically): I'm only 60, our Worship. Wells' advocate, continuing, said that she had endeavoured to obtain an old age pension for him, but, through some irregularity in the application, had not succeeded.

His Worship suggested that, failing occult aid in finding the £115.000, both parties should apply for charitable aid, and he adjourned the case for a month.