WIFE ALLEGES BRUTAL TREATMENT

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 70, 26 July 1929, Page 6

WIFE ALLEGES BRUTAL TREATMENT

PUT OUT OF HOUSE IN NIGHTGOWN. EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE. Press Association —copynsflt AUCKLAND, This Day. Some extraordinary allegations were maifo in a police court ca.se, today, in the hearing of a complaint by Letilia Ann Elmslcy against he? husband Peter EJm&lev of 'VUrqanga a farmer. She said, in evidence that rcc:is-* eel had struck her, threatened .i?r with a RUiij and turned her out of the house nunc than once. Oj:j night he kept her out all night. It was winter and she spciv'E the night in a calf sr. :;*: "-earing only her night dress. She covered herself with sacks. Another night he put her out at 2 a.m. She crouched in a corner under a. lean-to until daylight. Recently when there was a heavy thuncprstorm, accused told her to gelt out of thp. house.. She tried "to gcr back but the doors were; locked. She was afraid to disobey him for fear of a thrashing. "If I did not obey him" she sobbed, "I know I would pet a whip over rriy shoulders. While Emslie and her daughter were eating bacoij, and egg and fried potatoes all she (witness) got' was. fried ireadi which accused thmw on thn flo'n- for her. Mrs. Elmsley declared that her two daughters (18 and 161) had also ill-treated her, kicking the skin off her shins and legs, and sticking needles into her. Her husband [hadn't given her money for xen years, and she couldn't remember when last she was in ai drapery establishment. She was forbidden to touch the milk or go to the cupboard. Once when she was drinking milk her husband called her a sneak thief. He had beaten her too with knotted rop>es. There was a pathetic scene in court when friends came forward to greet Mrs. Elmsley .at the lunch ajdjour;nme;nfp, witness breaking; idowii in the arms of a police matron. Witness said she thanked God ;Jicr parentis were alive. They lived at Takapuna.