MAINTENANCE OF WIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21830, 19 June 1934, Page 13

MAINTENANCE OF WIFE

CHARGE AGAINSt HUSBAND DISMISSAL BY MAGISTRATE " Further inquiries must bo made into this case," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday when Percy Norman Martin, aged 33, relief worker, was charged with attempting to leave the country without providing adequate maintenance for his wife. An application for a maintenance order in respect to herself and her two children was also made by defendant's wife. Defendant pleaded not guilty. May Elizabeth Martin said she had been "married for nine years, and there wore two children, aged three years and seven years. She had been living with defendant and their two children in her mother's house, but in February she had left. She went in a voluntary capacity to the health camp at Motuihi and stayed there for some time. Witness said she had got permission from the Child Welfare Department to remove the children as, she knew her husband was going to take them away. He was also making arrangements to leave the country, as he had sold his furniture. " I had n'o intention of leaving New Zealand," defendant said. " I have always maintained my children and I want to continue to maintain them. My wife left me six times, and I took her back six times. Now I want to get board for myself and my children, so that they can bo properly looked after." " I am not satisfied at all that this is a case for an order," said Mr. Hunt, in dismissing the charge and adjourning the hearing of the application for a maintenance order for a week.