LEA THE LASHER.

NZ Truth, Issue 131, 21 December 1907, Page 5

LEA THE LASHER.

«■ . Her Only Chance of Rest Was When He was m Gaol. The particular form 'of brutality used by tho man to the woman when the woman is applying for a summary separation order is a matter of tremendous public interest, and the man's view of the case is also a subject of great concern to all and sundry. Sometimes the man doesn't appear to defend himself, and the public is robbed of a sensation that rightfully belongs collectively to it. Take Joseph William Lea, of Wellington, as an instance. Joe didn't turn up m Court, and the Magistrate had to be guided by what the missus said m granting an order. There is no husband so awfully bad that he can't say something m extenuation of his brutality ; he might have an in-growing toe-nail or a hob-nailed liver, or something ; Unit when he doesn't roll up m response to blue paper his name is Mud or Lea. "He knocked me down on August 22," said the ill-used missus, whose name is Emily Christina, and whose genius for detail is a marked feature of her character. Emily looks about seventeen stone, and her fall must have been a heavy one. At any rate she was laid aside under medical treatment for a week or two. Joseph William was accustomed to banging her every time he came into the house ; m fact, THE THING WAS A HABIT, like biting one's nails, or something, and it had to he endured while Lea was out of gaol. Gaol was thc only thing that broke the monotony, but Joseph always made up for lost time when he came out. The necessary corroboration of the above particulars was supplied by Nellie Elizabeth Metcalfe, who once took a poker out of the infuriated husband's hand ere he doubled his missus up with his dirty mud-hook. There were no kids, which couldn't account for all Lea's brutality ; that was traceable to beer, and whether the presence of beer was due to the absence of kids, or vice versa, nobody has attempted to say. Riddell, S.M., said that as a rule evidence. in a case between husband and wife required corroboration to establish persistent cruelty. In the present, instance, the continuity of cruelty ' had been broken, but the breakage was due to Lea's enforced absence from his wife while m gaol. It was continuous enough for his Worship to hold as persistent cruelty, and the miserable wife-heater was ordered to pay 15s a week towards his separated bride's support, and to Day costs amounting to 30s.