TOO MUCH MOTHER-IN-LAW?

NZ Truth, Issue 1168, 19 April 1928, Page 5

TOO MUCH MOTHER-IN-LAW?

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) OBSERVATION of the stream of life which passes along the aisles of New Zealand courthouses has inclined us to the conviction that mothers-in-law are akin to Sir Galahad— distance lends enchantment. We agree with Magistrate Salmon that although most of theise ladies are estimable characters to' call upon occasionally, to live with em is quite another matter altogether. ' And when the pathetic weeping of Moana Ellen Clark broke through the 1 silence of the Wellington Maintenance Court last week it was fairly evident to "Truth" that there is a good deal to be s^id m favor of wedded youngsters ganging their am gait. # Little Moana asked Magistrate Salmon for a maintenance order against her 22-year-old husband and m so doing, she stressed the fact that while she was quite willing to live with her husband, the introduction of his mother at the family breakfast-table was like a spoon m the morning Seidlitz powder. , . . . When she and Bruce Francis Clark were married m September of last year they agreed to live with Mrs. Clark senior for a while, but whether or not each demanded the frying-pan at the same time— -or maybe there were too many external rustlings of the connubial nest — the fact is that Moana struck out on her own account. Her husband, she said, /had not provided her with any means of subsistence, her health was undermined and she was obliged to take proceedings against him under tho Destitute Persons Act. She was extremely fond of her husband, but her sheltering under the maternal roof had not been conspicuous by its happiness and for that reason she simply could not abide the disturbing interference of her husband's mother. She left. Despite her entreaties for a little place of their own, even if only a single furnished room, her youthful husband adopted the attitude that what suited him should be good enough for her. , And there they were. Magistrate Salmon reproved Clark for his unbending manner towards his wife, reminded him of his duty and responsibilities as a home provider, gave him some fatherly advice that was tantamount to telling Clark not to be a fool and packed them both off to reconciliation and a home of their own. i