Eileen Says He Ordered Her To Leave Home

NZ Truth, Issue 1128, 14 July 1927, Page 5

Eileen Says He Ordered Her To Leave Home

3 . ■ — ■■ was addressed to "J. Hewitt, Esq." Letters that had since come for his wife he had forwarded on to her. [ They might have been the bills her counsel mentioned as having been sent down by him. He did not know, they were bills. To Lawyer . Treadwell, Felix said he did not want a wife who was untrue to him. He did not order his wife to go. The position was one of her own making. They had occupied separate beds for more than twelve months, he said. "That, of course, is a matter for another tribunal to decide," remarked counsel. i Questioned concerning the conversation that followed the alleged confession, Felix said he asked his wife what | she was going to-do. According to him, she said she was going to marry Hewitt. "Hewitt is a married man with a- family,"!. Felix told her, to which she replied: "As soon as . Mrs.' Hewitt hears of the divorce she will divorce Hewitt and then he'll' marry me." Felix said he received only £300, a year for managing the run. The free house and usual perks were thrown m. To Lawyer Treadwell, he admitted he received some money from certain shares he owned. His full income for the whole of last year was. £540. No, he had not seen Hewitt's photograph on his wife's dresser. 7 He had promised to see his wife's mother recently when he came to town, but had not clone so. He. rang her up, and "she went oft like a wound-up gramophone." BLAMED "JACK" The two children he had since placeri m a home, but refused to divulge the name of the .'place, because "as he aflirmed; his wife might "steal them.'', Lawyer Treadwell pressed his point and Magistrate Page ordered that the name of the place be given. The children were m St. Matthew's School, Masterton. Edith Maud Eilers, wife of a bank clerk m Pahiatifa, said she had known Mrs. Bolton since before her marriage. Eileen wrote her . the . morning she left home. Previous to this '^she had come to her place and said she was m trouble. This was one evening when she said she was m a certain condition and laid the blame on "Jack." Lawyer Treadwell said there was "definite evidence that Felix would not have his wife back. Even if the alleged impropriety were* true, it did not affect the case. It was quite clear that he did not want her back and it was his duty to maintain her. Counsel for the defence maintained that Eileen was not sent away, but left the domestic hearth of her own accord. She never asked for maintenance or even mentioned the children when she left. It was absurd that she should now come asking for maintenance and also seeking to obtain custody of the children. The writs for divorce were already out and m a week or two at most 'she would have alimony, which the Supreme Court would undoubtedly grant her. . , His client had no objection to paying her alimony, but did object to the present orders being made. The wife left home on. an admission of misconduct and never offered to come back. Leaving under those circumstances, she was not entitled to succeed. Had she returned and told her husband that what she had said was untrue and that she wanted to come back, and had he refused to have her m the house, then she might have some claim. "The letters make it quite clear under what circumstances she left;" said the bench. It was not proper for him to make an order, as divorce proceedings were m progress.* The case was dismissed.