NO DOUGH FOR DORA

NZ Truth, Issue 1128, 14 July 1927, Page 7

NO DOUGH FOR DORA

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) WHEN Dora Eileen married Thomas Geoff ery Howse the joyful event took place from the. liome of th,e bride's grandma m Vauxhall road, Devoiiport.

THE radiantly happy couple went to live at Nelson after the parson had finished with them and for ten months there was nothing but bliss m their domestic life. Tom's relatives, m the Hawkes Bay district and Dora's next-of-kin at Devonport were highly pleased at the manner m which the matrimonial venture was shaping. Then the pair went to Helensville and according to- Dora it was there that she discovered the first fly m the ointment. Thomas commenced to bully her. From this stage on his love appears to have turned into such violent antipathy that on several oc- .. casions he threatened to shoot his little wife. Naturally his expressed intention one' day of suddenly plunging her into eternity caused many a domestic dispute. Dora states that her, hubby was always sober when he made these threats. . ■ .'.; Then again, another thing that did not add to the peace and quietness of the home was hubby's practice of always being stony broke. "When his wife wanted money he never had any,' though he was m a good job. ■ . ,' At this time they • were living •m rooms, but While Tom paid for the accommodation he failed to provide Dora with any cash to enable, her to carry on. His wife declared that the reason for this continual financial stringency on hubby's part was due to his gambling habits. Dora's mother kept her daughter in v clothing. 7,

The last straw was when the wife discovered that Thomas had sold all her wedding presents, which had been stored m two or three cases. Hubby had them carted to Robertson's auction rooms, where they were disposed of to the highest bidders. Many of these presents had his bride's name engraved on them, but that did not deter Thomas at all. After .this display of affection, Dora packed up and departed for her granny's home at Devonport. A couple of days later hubby -attempted to induce her to return to him, but she refused. Dora's romance ended m the Divorce Court, when she petitioned Judge Reed to dissolve her marriage with Thomas on the grounds of constructive, desertion. In her story to the Court, Dora stated that on one occasion at Helensville her hubby had attempted to strangle her. He was quite sober at the time. Her reason for refusing to return to him was fear for her safety.. Since leaving him she had : maintained herself as a ty piste. Lawyer Endean quoted the following extract from a letter written by Thomas to his wife's friend: "I" wish I could undo the past, but I suppose I will have to pay for what I have done." ' Dora stated that the last she had heard of her. hubby was that' he was staying at tho Federal Hotel, Christchurch/ This was m October, 1925. Thomas will be minus a wife. in three months' time.