MAINTENANCE TANGLE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1930, Page 9

MAINTENANCE TANGLE

HUSBAND £B3O IN ARREARS. DIVORCED PARTIES RE-MARRIED. J * Unusual features were revealed in a case in which Oswald Clarence Tulk came before the Palmerston North Police Court charged with disobedience of,an order for maintenance of his wife and three children. He was. in arrears t> the extent of £ll 10s. Mr. Relling, who represented defendant, said actually the arrears were £B3O 17s 4d. Defendant was divorced from his wife, who was living in Australia. Both parties had now re-mar-ried, and defendant had another child. He was not aware of his obligation to pay such a huge amount of arrears until he was served with a warrant or arrest to appear at the Gisborne Court. He had never been in Gisborne not in that district. Why proceedings should be instituted there was not known, as he was working at the time in Taihape. Apparently the Australian authorities had picked Gisborne out at random. Ot ■ the £ll 10s arrears £7 15s was represented by police expenses involved in the execution of the warrant, lhe magistrate at Gisborne had ordered defendant to pay 7s 6d a week oft the £B3O arrears,- apparently with the object of keeping the order alive. The magistrate, Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., said that if these circumstances had been placed before him he would have seriously considered cancelling the- arrears. It was impossible to expect a married working man to pay off 6UO a hime sum. To do so at the rate of 7- 6d a week would take a lifetime. Both parties were now married again. The wife had done without the maintenance so long that she did not now need it. As all the children were grown up, it was not right that such a responsibility should be placed on a man s shoulders. Apparently the Australian Court had kept increasing the order ant had been getting nothing. Referring to the fact that proceedings had been lodged in the Gisborne Court, the magistrate said that the Australian authorities should have located the 'defendant before issuing proceedings. Gisborne was one of the hardest places in New Zealand to get at, and there appeared to be no reason why defendant should have been required to go there. His Worship adjourned the case sine die to enable the police to inquire into the reason for taking the defendant to Gisborne and to give the defendant an opportunity of inquiring into the position in Australia, and to discuss wjth Mr. Belling whether an application should be made to have the £B3O airears cancelled.