WIFE'S SECRET HOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 239, 9 October 1928, Page 8

WIFE'S SECRET HOARD.

THREE YEARS' SAVINGS.

gum> BT HUSBAND.

WAGES OR PROFITS!

A MAGISTERIAL DECISION.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. A reserved decision was given by Mr. Wyvern Wilson to-day on a nonsuit point raised by Mr. J, F. Strang (for defendant) last week in a ease in which May Hoggard sued her husband, William H. Hoggard, for the return of £339, which had been found stored away in a paper bag in a private cupboard of her house at Frankton. The magistrate, after reviewing the evidence, said it would appear that immediately on their return to New Zealand, after their honeymoon, the wife commenced to save a secret hoard out of moneys which came into her hands. She was abetted in this course by her mother, sister and two brothers. The deception was successfully maintained for over three years. Mr. Strang had asked for a nonsuit on the ground that the moneys out of which plaintiff put away this £330 wsra part of the profits of her husband's business and out of moneys given her for housekeeping. His Worship said there was ample authority for the proposition advanced on behalf of defendant. The law had been long settled that tho savings of a wife out of money given her by her husband for household expenses belonged to the husband- There were also several English authorities which showed that moneys saved by a wife out of the profits of her husband's business belonged to the husband, but he could find no authority for tha contention that the wife's wages earned by her in her husband's business and paid her as such were not her separate property. The application for a nonsuit was therefore dismissed, his Worship remarking that he was satisfied part, at any rate of the money which was now claimed wa» saved by the wife out of her wages. What proportion he was unable to say until ho had heard defendant's ease.