THEIR MARRIED LIFE

NZ Truth, Issue 1229, 20 June 1929, Page 9

THEIR MARRIED LIFE

A Dog's Life -Was Her Version, but He Had "A Good Time" NO SEPARATION ORDER SAID S.M. ■ (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative). .. j She said that during the whole of her 23 years of | . .§.. married life she had never lived happily with her hus- §•' • | band; it was "just a cat and dog life," and she had 1 . 1 been "nothing but a slave to him all her life." § | He, on the contrary, declared they had "had quite fa | a good time," adding, with gusto: "We've had our 1 I little tiffs, y'know, but always the fun of making them i I up,M . : ■''■'"'■'■■ '"'■ I | fTtiiitiitiiiiiiMitiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiif iiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiittiJ*ii(ttii(iiitiiifiitiifttiiittfiiiiiriifiirTtffiiif tfffiifiriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitijiiitftiiiittiifiiiiiiffiTiijiirtrfiiiiiitiiiiiiiit^ '

WITH two such diametrically opposed testimonies, given on oath „- by husband and wife, what could a nYagistrate do? i. At the Dunedin Maintenance Court, Mr. H. W. Bundle, S.M;, after hearing these and other statements from Percival Harry Moody and his wife, Annie, adjourned the'- hitter's application for a separation and maintenance order; for a7period of six weeks. The application was based on alleged cruelty and failure to maintain. Mr: C. J." L». White guided Mrs, Moody, -a-' dark-complexioned woman of 42 years, through her evidence. - Her husband, she said, was always abusing her and accusing her of going out with other men, including Chinamen. He hat often struck her and thrown boots at her. Cross-examined by Mr. W. L>.' Moore, acting for the husband, Mrs. Moody said she had been taking m boarders for- the past 15 months. Counsel:, Did the .trouble arise over one of the boarders? Mrs. Moody: I suppose he had to put it on to somebody. Did you go out with this, boarder? — Not. without one of the children. She knew that her husband had had to assign his estate when m the Broadway Tearooms. She was also aware that twice the bailiffs had been m for arrears of rent, and that her. husband had later occupied a position with the Bristol Company at £3 a week. Re-examined by Mr. White, Mrs.! Moody declared .there was npthing m

the alleged affair between herself and the man Wright. "He is 24 years of age and I am. 42. , He was just like a son," she stated. Referring to her husband, she said: "I have been a slave to him all my life." , A daughter named Daphne, aged -'13 years, and a grown-up son, Percival Eugene,, corroborated their mother's evidence. In the course of the evidence, Mi\ White produced a sample of . five notices, written m pencil on notepaper, which were said to have been plastered about the kitchen by Moody. The notice read: "A woman that is a liar is nothing but a receiver. A man's life is not worth living when he has hold of one of -those liars." 1 From the witnp ss-bbx, Moody jauntily referred to his married life as a "good time." "We have had our little tiffs, y'know, but always had the fun of making 'em up," he' observed, with a wide smile that displayed every molar m his head. He, denied, absolutely, that he had been cruel to or failed to maintain his wife. ' . '' - "A man who writes notices like this is of an absolutely uncontrollable nature . . .it is the action of a child," remarked the S.M. He refused :to make a separation order, and on the condition that Moody paid his wife £ 2 a week m the meinitime; adjourned the hearing* for a term of six, weeks.