WAR-TIME MARRIAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 12

WAR-TIME MARRIAGES.

SEVERAL DIVORCE ACTIONS. COURT GRANTS DECREES. f « WIFE WHO DISAPPEARED. Threo war-timo marriages, among others, came before Mr. Justice Reed in the Supreme Court yesterday, upon petitions for divorce.Eviderico was given that Pearl Clues was found by her husband, Walter Clues (Mr. Hall Skelton), on his return from the front to have sold up the family property in Wellington and disappeared. It was stated that during the soldier's absence his wife had lived with another man and that she had taken the announcement that her husband was on the water as the signal to flee. In the case of Alfred T, Author (Mr. Matthews), who married in 1917, ho found on demobilisation that his wife, Matilda Auther, was estranged from him. After some months, in February, 1920, she asked him to " get out of tho place," which he did, and for good. No children were concerned in the case. An eve-of-embarkation wedding _ was that of Doris Lilian Belliss, the petitioner (Mr. Matthews), and Ernest Arthur Belliss, which took place at Wellington in January, 1916, five dayfi before respondent sailed for the front. On his return in 1918 he did not come near his wife. In July, 1920, they met by appointment in Auckland, but next day he wient away and petitioner had neither seen nor heard from him since. Petitioner agreed that the one child of the union "shall remain with respondent's relatives. The marriage of Ethel Giles, petitioner (Mr. Matthews), to James John Giles (Mr. Tong) took place in Jilly, 1911, and was unhappy from the outset. In April, 1922, it was agreed at Giles' wish that his wife should go to Sydney with a lady friend, as the final break between them. Since that time they had never lived together. Respondent was granted the custody of his two children. An unhappy marriage between Grace Eileen Virtue (Mr. Matthews) and Clarenco Peter Virtue, dating from 1909, led to a separation by agreement in 1922, which the Court now extended to complete severance of the tie. The desertion of Selina Eleanor Miller (Mr. Hall Skelton) by her husband, Robert T. Miller, took place in 1919 after 15 years of married life. Petitioner had since earned her own livelihood. In all instances the Court granted decrees nisi. On a motion for a decree absolute in the case in which Elizabeth Baker (Mr. Gould) had been granted a divorce from Arthur H. Baker (Mr. Allan Moody) consideration was given to tho question of alimony. His Honor finally made an order for the payment by Baker of 30s a week, and security to the amount of £250 that the order would be obeyed.