DIVORCE SUITS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2265, 29 July 1897, Page 11

DIVORCE SUITS.

A HYPNOTISING LOTHARIO. Apckland, July 23. - A somewhat peculiar divorce case was heard in the Supreme Court to-day, the parties being George Samuel Sankey (petitioner), Elizabeth Sankey (respondent), and Ros3 Trever (corespondent). The petitioner stated that he was married in May, 1894, to the respondent, and there were three children as the issue. Trever stopped with him and his wife for 10 months at Matakana. His suspicions being aroused, he warned Trever to leave, and Trever did so, bub Mrs Sankey followed him. Trever professed to be a doctor and a hypnotist, and Kirs Sankey, pretending to be ill, was attended by him. His wife had never inquired about her children. Evidence was given tbat the respondent and co-respondent, neither of whom appeared, were served with a summons at Lyttelton. Judge Conolly granted a decree nisi. It wai an extraordinary thing that the vroman should leave a respectable home. It looked as if there were hypnotism in it. Mr Haboney, solicitor, said that certainly there

•was something peculiar. He understood that the parties were living iv destitution. In the case of Margaret Coombs (petitioner) v. William Coombs (respondent) a decree absolute was granted. In the case of Richard Young (petitioner) v. T. E. Dougherty (respondent), which was an application for a decree nisi for dissolution of marriage on the ground that the petitioner's marriage was null and void, evidence was given that the respondent had .admitted that a previous husband was alive when she married petitioner. A decree 7>isi of nullity of marriage was granted.