DIVORCE PETITION

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 141, 11 December 1929, Page 19

DIVORCE PETITION

HUSBAND'S STORY

The hearing of evidence on the divorce petition of Robert Johnston, chemist, of Wellington, against Jano Anne Johnston was continued in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon before the Chief Justice (the Hon. M. Myers). Mr. O. C. Mazongarb acted for the petitioner, and Mr. P. Jackson for the respondent.

Edgar Thomas Spidy, mechanical engineer, said that wliilo he was living near the Johnstons in Northland, tho disturbances at night at their house were so annoying that he felt obliged to complain to the police. 'Witness said that he had seen Johnston dressing in the garden in the morning behind a bush.

Another neighbour, William Francis Jacobson, said that he had often heard Mrs. Johnston calling out at night, and chasing Johnston from the houso with a stick.

Maud Tilley, a married woman, living next to 'ohnston's shop in Cuba street, described having seen Mrs. Johnston trying to get into the premises. She had also heard Mrs. Johnston using very bad language to tho petitioner and his father. She had never heard Johnston retaliate in any way; he always appeared quiet and reserved.

Ernest Leon \rivian Brown, a chemist's assistant, formerly employed by the petitioner, saia that Mrs. Johnston s conduct while she was in the shop was such that Johnton used to say only a few words and go out to prevent a disturbance. Her language was most abusive, while Johnston was qtiite moderate and civil towards her. One atternoon, witness found Mrs. Johnston hiding in an upstairs cupboard. She was m male attire and was carrying a stick. On another occasion, some one telephoned to the shop and told witness, in a disguised voice, that Johnston was "carrying" on with another man's wife, and the speaker would break the windows in tho shop,and his head.

To His Honour witness said he recognised the voice as that of Mrs, Johnston.

_ In reply to Mr. Jackson, witness said he did not think he had ever told Mrs. Johnston he was sorry for her on account of the way her husband treated her.

According to Albert Edward Mann boot importer, Johnston was a quiet clean-living man. Witness had never known him to drink in the twenty years he had known him.

Thomas Hai. Coltman, retired watchmaker and jeweller, of Cuba street, said that he had often heard disturbances in Johnston's shop, and a woman using very bad language. _ The petitioner said that he was married in 1916, and there was one child. He had left home in December, 1926. The trouble started some months after the marriage. • Mrs. Johnston had a very bad temper, and her constant nagging kept him awake at night and forced him to leave home several times before the final parting. At first he used to sleep.in a back bedroom, but Mrs. Johnston locked it up, and he had to sleep on the dining-room couch. She used to make things unpleasant for him lin the mornings, and he often weut without his breakfast. She was also in the habit of throwing things at him including the contents of a teapot, and she sometimes struck him with a stick Often she accused him of immorality' and threatened to shoot him. His reason for not leaving the house before ±JZb was that he was afraid he would be accused of desertion, which would prevent his having the child. After the petitioner had detailed a number of incidents which-]cd up to his leaving the house, the Court adjourned until to-day.