A BIGAMIST’S PETITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24633, 14 June 1941, Page 13

A BIGAMIST’S PETITION

DIVORCE FROM WIFE SOUGHT CONDITION OF PROBATIpN (P.A.) ' AUCKLAND. June 13. Presenting a petition by Horace Basil Wiggins, of Whangarei, for a divorce from his wife, Myrtle Irene Wiggins, on the ground of her adultery, counsel (Mr Turner) exolained to Mr Justice Fair that when Wiggins was admitted to probation on a charge of bigamy one of the conditions was that he should proceed with a divorce petition. The petitioner was married in 1932, and there were children —a boy with the petitioner’s parents and a girl with the wife. The couple lived in the King country and then in North Auckland. The wife went to Taranaki for her second confinement. and when the petitioner visited the hospital after the child’s birth he found, another man Visiting her. She introduced this man to the petitioner, and said she loved him. She subsequently lived with the other man. The petitioner formed-an association with another woman at Whangarei. which resulted in his . prosecution for bigamy. At the prosecution the wife gave evidence that she had been living with another man. Mr Justice Fair said the court required independent corroborative evidence of the wife’s adultery. Remarking that there must be many people living in the same district as the wife who could give such testimony, he adjourned the case for the production of such evidence.