SUED FOR MAINTENANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1935, Page 7

SUED FOR MAINTENANCE

CANDIDATE AT ELECTION EXPENSES PAID BY SUPPORTERS. SMALL NEWSPAPER PROPRIETOR. FORMER PROSPERITY DWINDLED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. A candidate for the Bay of Islands seat at the general election, Robert Edward Hornblow, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court to-day before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., charged with failing to comply with a maintenance order for 7s 6d a week in respect of his former wife. Questioned by the maintenance officer, HornbkW said he conducted a weekly newspaper ip .North Auckland which, however, had lost headway rapidly in the bad times. All the takings were paid into a bank and Homblow drew out about £4 a week, £3 of which he paid in wages to an assistant The maintenance officer: You stood for Parliament, did you not? Hornblow: I did. What did it cost you?—Nothing. My supporters paid. • When questioned by the magistrate Hornblow said he had lost his deposit. The money had been lent to him by a relative. His wife, Homblow continued, went away with another man, Homblow agreeing to her obtaining, a divorce, the expenses of which he paid. “At 40 odd years of age I was worth £20,000,” he added. The maintenance officer said Hornblow’s former wife was destitute at Dunedin. The arrears of maintenance amounted to more than £3O. “It is apparently more profitable .to be a politician than a proprietor of a newspaper,” remarked the magistrate, who said that there did not appear to be a wilful default and that the matter would be dismissed.