AFTER FORTY YEARS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17130, 4 September 1926, Page 5

AFTER FORTY YEARS

DIVORCE GRANTED WIFE ADDICTED TO DRINK MAN'S PATHETIC STORY (Fer Press Association,) AUCKLAND, this day. ■;. A pathetic divorce action, based;on habitual drunkenness on the part of the wife, came before Mr.- .Tustiea Herd man in the Supreme Court today, when Joseph Buckley, an elderly man, afflicted with deafness, asked for a dissolution of his marriage which was .contracted nearly forty years ago. The respondent, Kathleen Buckley, although she. was-jn another room, did not appear in Court. Her counsel, Mr J. J. Millivan, obtained leave, to:withdraw the answers to the petition, making it an undefended action. •■-

Tiie petitioner was a sorrowful figure in the witness box, and his story was drawn out more by questions of his counsel, Mr. R. A. Singer, than by his monosyllabic answers. Petitioner said that, almost from the time the marriage was contracted, on November 7, had obsessed his wife. Although there were six children of the marriage, the home was the scene of continuous outbursts of violence. His wife would break the, furniture and tear the blankets, and; only a few years ago, smashed a door with an axe. Respondent was arrested for drunkenness on different occasions and once disappeared from home, and, Tyhen traced with great difficulty,.was found to be living under an assumed name.

Mr. Sullivan said the respondent admitted having taken to drink, following a. shock, fqui- years ago. She had not been drinking all through her married life.

Mr. Singer said that Buckley had brought the petition because he was tired of the whole business.

Mr. Sullivan: The petition is not defended, but it is right and proper it should be mentioned that the wife has not been drinking for eight months past, ever since the petition was served. A decree nisi was granted. .