HUSBAND’S PLEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 177, 29 July 1932, Page 3

HUSBAND’S PLEA

“RUINED BY WIFE’S SPIRITUALISM.’» A man named Alfred Wilkins, who was sued at Willesden Police Court for maintenance arrears, and who applied, in turn, for the previous order to be reduced, said that his life had been ruined by his wife taking up spiritualism. Owing, he said, to distress of mind caused by the separation, he was able only to earn half his usual income. When his wife took up spiritualism, “that was the end of thirty years of happiness. ’ ’ Mr Hiscocks, solicitor for the wife: And you desire to pay less than 35/- a week to your wife, to whom you wrote last month: My heart is torn, my brain’s afire Thou art my life, my soul’s desire. The Husband: Yes. we used to sing things like that together in our happy married days. Mr Hiscocks: Did you ever say your wife was mad? The Husband: I did say that, spiritualism had unbalanced her mind, and that is peifectly true, or she would never have left me. Since this trouble started I have often said: “This is never my Mina.” The magistrate refused to vary the order and ordered the husband to pay the arrears, whereupon he remarked: “How terrible that spiritualism should bav e separated us after thirty years.”