DECREES IN DIVORCE.

NZ Truth, Issue 62, 25 August 1906, Page 6

DECREES IN DIVORCE.

As HOT DAYS WORK FOR THE CHIEF JUSTICE.

Errant Husbands and Wicked Wives.

/ . . . Urgent and Willing David Griuion,

Sools His Wife and Her Witness to Make it Hot Against I!im<

Undefended suits^ as usual, compris--2d the main part of the divprce do■ings at the Wellington Supreme Court sittings, during the last .two days, over which .Chief Justice Stout has presided. Thursday was divorce day and nearly two dozen of '• matrimonial mistakes were corrected m what seemed to be an incredibly short space of time, which may be accounted for by the fact, that the Chief Justice was extremely pushed for- time, having a busy -session, ahead at Wanganui next week, mi n addition .to 1 which 'was tho circumstance that , all the cases were .simple, short if not .sweet, and very clear. Most couples -were unhitched m half the time it took the. parson to tie ■ihem. There was moreover, strangeto say. a* remarkable absence or tears* and tribulation on the part of fair and fragile petit jejners, which . may

probably lo accounted for. -by the fact

that no lime was cut to waste, and thus pumping operations- v/2.X ; necessarily restricted.

A Boer war. hero, named* Grcoi>;c William Sullivan, a member of tho Ninth Contingent, and at present expiating a crime of rape by a live years' "stretch" m Auckland gaol.

was respondent m a , suit instituted

• -by his wronged and young wife, M-ary ,'Jane Sullivan, who sought her freedom from -the lascivious faarm-buxner ( on the grounds, of adultery and desertion. Mr Wilf or dy explained that* though the crime for whioh -Sullivan* was now m his proper place waa aground fbr divorce, the- wife could notbear the expense of proving it, and had to fall back on other : actc of adultery, committed while the Ninth Contingent was camped titan- Auckland, m March, 1902. fThis waa proyod by another Boer-b/iter, from •whose evidence it was gathered that Sullivan was a holy terrbr with thQ*

girls, and never wanted , for

female l \

•Companionship and consolation - in-. \those warlike days. Que paarticular; * 'garrison hack" had a^ecuKax charm for the bog-trottex, and hevin-.-avboast-ful moment had described her .to his comrades ..in, arms _\,k being "a good" thing. ' ' ; • This unmanly v boast, together w-ilih the swbifh fact thaii the convicted female rayisher was seen m ta comprbmising\ position with ''the good thing," was quite sufficient, .to* justify the granting of -a deoree aisi,, to be made afbsdUite, m, three 'months, »sthe wronged wifp being gtve_j\thecus-i of her two young children. • "Why Smith left' horn-©.'.? was noti\

miLde clear m the ca|se ■: oi;A_iMC Jones.. Smith v. Charles ; ftlwjmas Smith. Over five y^^s a_o, Cliiar les ,4-vas .. a canvasser ; Ift-. "i| Canterbury ItvwhJji^aSlM^ir^r 1901, jie leftchild to -go, as he said, ' to Invercargill, and since then- she has had to battle along on. her ownas stewardess on the s.s. Hrafcomahana, and, .though she-had? -traißelled some, she ha_d never heardi"ti-dti»gs<of-her poor wandering one. (If _evever : conies .back he will learn tha^'-hc^has* no longer a wife, as a.- decree »nisi,-to< be made absolute mv three nßohths,* was j granted." John Robert Cole* -a paperhangei', . of Masterton, for whom Mr Hecdman! appeared, some time ago got a_n ■order against Jenny, has wile, for the•restitution of conjugal- rights.. Jenny jwasnl't having any, apparently^ sodier refusal has lost her a husband. He» will 'be a free man three months* he.nee, with the right to lestahljish fresh rights where they'll ihc more appreciated. Edward Stansilaiis San&brook* drives a .doctor- about town,, aaid to--look at him, one would^ihanlly.t think his matrimoniail venture with Doro.thy, m December, 1902 w had, during subsequent years, hung like a millstone around his neck. They had iived together m Wcllingiton and>' had one child. Over a yfear a^go, his tmis.sus, without caiisc, left i-Jiim m the lurch. A private detective found -her living with a man najmed Bturke, whose name she had takera, in-^Jacoib's place. When -acquainted with -the- fact that divorce proceedings, were to be instituted agjainst her, murmured ■that it .was all right <a,nd that she did not intend to defend . The path having, been made easy &a decree nisi, •to be moved absolute » in November' next, will, as far as Sand-brook's matrimonial aSair is concerned, put an end to his misery. . . Sarah Kirkland, a wh__lc back, got an order for the restitut ion- of conjugal rights, against 'Alfued Kirkland, as .also did Alice Hararisoß against Job Harrison. Alfred was sot

ivig and Job was not-jiaiiient enough Jo renew relationship '_vi<f-.h thcis reswives, so now* their -chances ire gone forever..

r George Alexander ] Brewer, «.- j;ar» flener, of Pet.one, mrirricd Jane Re--hecca on Sep/u. 15, _U9OO, and now regrets it. Sfome timet after marriage his wife slipped from, grace, and he forgave her unchasti£y. Thisr forgiveness was th/.-own away* on the worthless woman, who, last April, ctearsd away alto^e*her, .and ta private 't?c found her living m TJen-nyson-strost, Wellington, with a na-an (named Merewether, under the name of Moore. When -apprised, 'of the fact that a petition for divorce had hesen filed, she ,w#s nob sorely grieved Ibut wished Geofrge A. to hurry up and get it •over as quickly as possilblc. No time was waste, m graniting ai decree nisi. The suit Sarah Scott Greeks tovsus George E. Greeks :#as %ho star turn of the day. The prtir arc an cMerlv couple, m Jact are grandmother and grandfather. Mr -Skerrett appeared for the woman atwl hoc ground, /or seeking a divoreo was adultery. The nair were married on Dec. 20, 1875,. In March, 190?., 'they separated, the cause being one Dolly Devon', a slip qf a girl, for 'whom the old reprohate entertain* >d a burning passion. He indulged iv hir pornic pranks at Porirua with Dolly, and. was next heard ol m Wellington, where the .old

'un was going it pretty swift with a | girl named Lena Stadden. So strong and willing did he make it with Lena, that Mrs Greeks herself was : a witness to an act of adultery. Lena was installed m a room m a house m Molesworth-street, where she gave .birth, to a still-born, child. Greeks -must have been a regular high-flier, as. Lena told her landlady that she expected that he would marry her. The .landlady of the Molesworth-street establishment, after discovering thc condition Lena was m, expressed h;r regret at .'having taken her m, bivi having her there, like a dear old soul, v/as not inclined to be :o iuiwom-sn-like as to turn her out. 'Then it v?as ■she .asked Lena If that ''man" \y__-;0 going to niarry nor. "Man, did I call -him," she sneered when m tlio "wit-ness-box ; "I did not know thon tha'. '■ho- was. a grandfather." A decree nis/ was .granted with costs against the respondent.

Mr Wi If ord ' appeared for AlfrertMontagu Luttrell, who petitioned for a dissolution of his marriage with Elsie. Grace Luttrell. This pair were made one at Hobart, Tasmania, a few years baick. About four years ago the -couple came to New Zealand, and Luttrell went to work at Wangamai, where "the snake m the grans," Benjamin Skelton, appeared on tho scene. It was the old story. She preferred .Ben to Albert, and as the husband had secured letters couched m loving ; terms from -t J,p missus to Ben, he thought it &.,t/d enough to divorco h-»r. . She is .now back with her mother m Tasmania, and will.be frw to .marry ' Ben three months hence.

Ernest Augustus Little, for whamMr I-lerdman appeared, took' Rose Elizabeth for better or for worse, on April 16, 1895, and subsequent events proved, it was for the worse. Thero were four children by the marriage. After ttn years of wedded bliss the of four conceived an attachment for a man named tflaw, a£.Blenheim. 'She neglected homr, husband and children, and evidence was called to prove that since she left her husband she had given birth' to another infant, of which thc petitioner was not father. Though a guilty wife, she made a demand for two of •hsr four children, but the Lav; wss ■against her. A decree nisi was grained.

Alfred Freeman Anstis sought a, -dissolution of his marriage with Mary •Alice Anstis on the ground of adultery with Ronald McNab, at Master■tpn and Feilding. Mary Alice lias' a.. separate account of her own and went •puntipg at the various race-meetings and,, while, at Masterton recently, she fall m with McNab, and the pair put, up at Scrimgeour's Hotel as Mr and Mrc . McNab. A decree nisi was- 1 granted.

A drunken .wife, who neglected husband and childiren, m the person of Miartha Ann Barsdley, was respondent •to the petition filed by Henry Bardsley. This was a painful case. Tb?parties were married on Nov. 23, _-__<_), and used to live at Crofton. First the unfortunate woman indulged m secret drinking habits ; the truth became, too apparent and she eventually became a hopeless , drunkard. Bardsley- s home . became a hell ; everything she could lay her hands on was pawned, and- she drifted from bad to wbrse. Repeated police court convictions followed. On. April 1 last she promised m writing- to give up her drunk-en habits, but it was useless. The Chief Justice, m granting a decree, said it was hopeless to expect that the woman would reform ; the use of alcohol had deprived her of ail will power, but he thought some -provision would be made for her . m a i n t_f*n Jl n r_e .

George Cock had his matrimonial shackles knocked off at the re,que;it of Harriet Cock, at present earning her own living as a domestic servant. Since the marriage m August, 1806, they had lived together m Auckland, New Plymouth and Wellington. H-s was a fearful drunkard and had knocked her about dreadfully and had been very cruel to her. In fact Cock was , a^beasiily old rooster not lit to rule the roost m a Chinaman's chicken run.

Kathleen G-rinton v. David Grinton was thc next suit decided. This pair were very happy on December IU, 1893. when Dave promised all sorts of. things at the hymenal altar. Five years later his conduct was so bad" that a magistrate ordered him to pay for his wife's and child's sup-; port. This order he ignored, and she had not seen him since 1898, though i she had heard that he had taken upwith another woman at Martinborough. Peter Walters, bootmaker, was the miasm- link. He supplied' evidence to the effect that he knew ■G-rinton had a lady living with' him whom everybody hoped and believed was his wife. Before coming into thc court to give evidence the witness had seen Grinton outside m the passage and he told him that lie wanted to go* rid of Mrs Grinton and hoped that he ( Walters i would make it as rough as he could for him, so a,s to make matters thc more easy. He admitted that he was still living with "that" wonlan who was said to be a housemaid at very tonev cit** hotel. He had also asked his wife, whom he met m the court corridor, to ''make it hot for him." A decree nisi, to be made absolute m three months was the verdict ; and now Dave ought to do the square thin<* by his beloved Martha.

On July 4, 3.885, Charles Howat led Sophia Harriet to the altar. Up till five years ago he made thc best of it. Then he' cleared out without rhymo or reason. There are no children and "Sophy" wants him back. So an order for the restitutior of conjugal rights was issued against him. Looks as if Chawles had gone dead cold on Sophia and iter conjugal rights.

Cursed with a drunken wife, who has been convicted of drunkennessand theft m London, Robert William Munro, a mariner, sought a dissolution of his marriage with Maud Mary Barnett. She is somewhere m England, and Munro is domiciled m New Zealand. This case, it was said, had, "•beep on the stocks" for 18 months."' He got his divorce. M?,rv Ann Whitburn was eighteenyears of age when, at Dunedin, on March 2, 1398, she took m, as lifepartner, James Hejirv Whitburn. Hef turned out a worthless drunkard, and, •eventually deserted her, leaving her-J to earn her own living as a waitress. • He treated her brutally, she told Mr Luckie, who appeared for her, and is now living with another woman, whose name was given' as Maud Melford, m Frederick-street. When Jas.^ Henry was informed that his wife' was going for a divorce, he said she' could do as she liked, as he did not intend to defend himself, and besides being father to a child the "other woman" had given birth to, hethought it was only right he should' stick to her. He can have her for ever, if so disposed, when three months pass by.

Another wronged wife was Mary Agnes Day, who, with Mr) Herdman's assistance, told her tale of matrimonial woes while united to Frederick Wm. Day, a commercial traveller, of Wellington. This couple were married m Sydney on June 26 , 1905. They have three children and came to New Zealand m .1902. He was periodically * away from her and she learned of his* intimacy with a young girl at Blenheim, who had given birth to a child. She taxed him with adultery and lie. admitted it. She had not lived with him since, though he had sent her money. A decree nisi was granted, with costs against the respondent.