A GIRL WIFE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12377, 10 February 1911, Page 2

A GIRL WIFE.

QUARREL AND DIVORCE (Special to Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. Mr Justice Edwards had some caustic remarks to make at the Supreme Court, when a rather extraordinary petition for divorce occupied' his attendance. Ernest Arthur Carter, a carpenter, living at Point Chevallier, sought a dissolution of his marriage with Ellen Maud Carter, on the grounds of desertion. Mr Endean appeared for petitioner. The parties were married in 1894, when petitioner was 22 years old and respondent only 15 years of age. Three children Mere the issue of the marriage. Petitioner described the quarrels that had occurred between them, culminating in the wife going away in June of 1903. On that occasion they had quarrelled, and she returned home about midnight. He then remarked, "This conduct will have to cease, or you must leave the house." His Honor : You Avere very much to blame for her departure. To the child of 15 you married you said at midnight, "Improve your conduct or go." She went, and has not returned. You might think your conduct proper, but I don't. Petitioner said he had not seen his wife since 1903, and she had neglected the children and the home. I His Honor interrupted the evidence further by declaring that he would not] listen to the woman being blackened, because' he would not believe petitioner. There must have been faults on both sides, and at the most petitioner could not expect to have realised rrtiich happiness in marrying a girl of 15 years. Emily Martin, sister of the petitioner, gave evidence as to desertion, and expressed, the opinion that respondent had no cause for 'leaving the' house. His Honor (with warmth) : What do you know, my good woman? How can you know what happened between man and wife? You know absolutely nothing about it. Stand down. The decree nisi, to be made absolute in three months, was granted.