ORDER FOR CUSTODY

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1934, Page 10

ORDER FOR CUSTODY

MAGISTRATE GRANTS REQUEST.

CASE OF MUGGERIDGE’S FAMILY.

An order giving custody of the two-years-old daughter of the marriage to Esme Muggeridge, applicant, from Reginald Griffin Muggeridge, Auroa, defendant, was made by Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., in the Hawera Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The decision ended a long case, which has extended over several court days from late-August to the present. Both parties shared the costs. Mr. A. K. North appeared for Mrs. Muggeridge and Mr. J. Hessell foi’ Muggeridge. A reference by the magistrate to the religious upbringing of the child provoked a long legal argument in which the fact that the father was a Catholic and desired the child to be brought up in that faith was mentioned by Mr. Hessell. After a chamber’s discussion, Mr. Woodward decided that Muggeridge should be allowed access on one day a week, with the right to take the child to his home in one term of a fortnight or in two terms of a week each year. The religious question was left open owing to the child’s age, application to be made if considered necessary. The child welfare officer will be allowed to see the child. After tracing the evidence at some length in his judgment, Mr. Woodward said he did not find on the evidence any fixed malicious disposition on the part of Mrs. Muggeridge’s towards the child or any serious neglect of its health. The child was well nourished and wellclad and when with her mother or with friends Mrs. Muggeridge showed no lack of affection. As,to applicant’s language, the magistrate said he was prepared to believe + hat it was no more than an unrefined young woman’s foolish and more or less meaningless affectation of a disgusting habit. The child was as yet too young to have suffered from it. The' evidence against Mrs. Muggeridge’s character as a mother and wife was more deserving of credence than her denial. It proved her to be frivolous, careless of her reputation and not above indulging in salacious conversation with an employee of her husband. In contrast with her own faults of character and conduct the home of Mrs. Muggeridge’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. T. V. Hudson, Manaia, was most desirable. Because of that and because he believed that Mrs. Muggeridge in the home and under her- mother’s control would treat the child better than in her oto home, the magistrate said he had come to the conclusion that, if the necessary safeguards were provided, the child’s welfare would be best provided in the Hudson home.

In coming to his conclusion, Mr. Woodward said there had not been proved any fault of conduct towards the child on the part of Muggeridge. Muggeridge was a hard-working farmer of small means who must necessarily have too little time to undertake alone the care of the child. His own parents’ home -was, through an unhappy accident in childhood to one of his brothers, not a suitable one for the child. Muggeridge’s mother stood aloof from Mrs. Muggeridge and had nothing to do with the child until August last. Muggeridge had other relatives to whom the child could go, but it was not desirable to send an infant among strangers.