CRUELTY ALLEGED

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

CRUELTY ALLEGED

ILL-TREATMENT BY HUSBAND MANAIA WOMAN SEEKS . DIVORCE. Allegation of frequent ' cruelty and drunkenness over a period of 11 years wa.c made by Mrs. Emma Dorice Mabel Julian, Kapuni, in applying for a divorce from William Bernard Julian, butcher, Mariaia, at the Supreme Court at New Plymouth yesterday. The petition was. granted by His Honour the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, the decree nisi to be moved absolute ’ after the expiration of three months, petitioner to have the interim custody of the two youngest children. Mrs. Julian, who was represented by Mr. L. A. Taylor, said she was married to Julian at Manaia- on June 26, 1934. There were four children, of whom the two youngest were with her mother and the other two with her husband’s mother. Her husband went away to Kaponga last Easter Saturday, although she objected. She did not see him again till lunch time on Monday. He told her he was taking three women •to the races. She objected, particularly to one woman, whom her husband visited frequently. She said that if her husband was . taking that woman to the races she was going too. Her husband became angry and struck her in the face with his clenched! fist. When he saw she was determined, said Mrs. Julian, he went back to the house, knocking her about. Later he went out to the car again, she following, and he hit her again with his elbow. He evenitually went to the races. Julian had said something about her “getting out,” said the petitioner. On Tuesday she saw Constable Scannell, who sent her to a doctor because of her black eye and a twisted finger. He told her not to go back to the house. Later her husband took her to her mother’s house at Kapuni and left her there, being ordered off the premises for filthy language. The youngest child was six months old at Easter time and her husband had beaten her three times since the child was born. He used to drink heavily before they were married but had promised to give it up. Throughout their married life he had often been drunk, had constantly used filthy language and had beaten her many times, including once just before the last child was born. Mrs. Sarah Hilda Jones, mother of petitioner, also gave evidence of having seen Julian frequently the worse for liquor and of having seen Mrs. Julian bruised. Mr. Taylor mentioned that a maintenance order for 16s a week had been obtained in the lower court. An appeal against the order by Julian, made under the Destitute Persons Act, was adjourned by His Honour after the decree was granted.