Drunk on His Wedding Day

NZ Truth, Issue 1104, 27 January 1927, Page 8

Drunk on His Wedding Day

Carroll's Domestic Carols Were All Out of Tune (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) When Thomas Joseph Carroll married Lilian Alice Oroft a few years ago he gave the coup de grace to any hopes previously entertained hy her m the way of becoming happily married.

SHE applied to Magistrate Salmon m a Wellington court for the Issue of separation, maintenance and guardianship orders, and was awarded with 30/- a week for herself and 10/---a week for her child. Lawyer Bill Perry placed his client ln the box, and this is the story she unfolded: • On their wedding day he" was m a helpless state of ' intoxication. She would not have gone on with the service, but for the fact that eyeryoneelse was ready and all' arrangements complete. • They were married m Wellington and were to have stayed the night at Palmerston North, thence to New Plymouth. At the close of the day he was a complete wreck, and what should have been a happy honeymoon ho turned into a four-days' carouse. He was quite unfit to travel to New Plymouth, and instead of pleasant recollections < she Is haunted with memories of Tom m a state bordering on catalepsy and' his being put to bed. "Dry'! Area Whisky They went on to Taumarunui, where the man held down a job as fitter's laborer ih the railways. Although Taumarunui ls allegedly "dry" there was never a week-end "passed but that Tom got drunk on Friday night arid ways still m a like condition on Sunday afternoon. He would subject himself to; sudden periods of repentance, and be restored to the wifely heart. ; Then his' good, resolves would crash again, and a furthervbout would add to Lilian's misery. Her father offered to get him a job

as a olerk with the Anchor Steamship Company. ' V He accepted the offer, but on arrival at Wellington decided to go and work on the wharf. Even then he made a practice of coming home drunk once a week, but wifle and her mother used to shield him from father-in-law. Came a night when her father saw the erring Tom m one of his alcdholic lapses. "If you can't be a man, I'll show you | how to be," said father to Tom, and he \ made It pretty olear that he knew i what he wanted. , Deserted Her At that time they were living with her parents and she told him it was little use their staying there any longer. He flung out of the house, saying he was going and that she wasn't likely to get any money from him — ever. Sinoe June, 1926, he had regaled himself from the full fruits of his earnings, whilst Lilian and her child had to live on the fruits of her own hard work. Counsel Shorland (for the, husband, * who did not appear): Do you ask us tp believe that a minister of religion would marry you '«to a man who was hopelessly drunk? — Yes. You say that he was drunk on the first day of arrival In Palmerston. Are you sure? Yes. We arrived there about midday and Tom said he was going downstairs for a "spot." I didn't see him again till 7 o'clock that night, when he was absolutely drunk. Counsel filed a statement setting out a complete denial of the whole allegation. ' Against' this came the evidence of .Ernest Croft, "Lilian's father, who tendered his proofs m a very straightforward way. % , He said that for six months of last year defendant was "beastly drunk" and had been warned on the last occasion that if there was a recurrence he would be "emptied out." One night Croft came home to Arid . his wife and daughter both crying and much upset. The cause was not hard to locate, and he punched it well and truly m the jaw telling it that he wanted no drunken men m his home. The drunken man did not retaliate, but slunk out of the house. The magistrate awarded the wife all expenses, plus a maintenance order of 30/- per week foi* herself and 10/- for the child.