PAPERS IMPOUNDED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20096, 16 November 1939, Page 8

PAPERS IMPOUNDED

DIVORCE SUIT EVIDENCE ALLEGED ILLEGAL ACTS DIRECTION BY JUDGE (Pur Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. The procuration of three miscarriages having been mentioned in a defended suit at New Plymouth yesterday, Mr. Justice Smith directed that the documents in the case should be impounded and brought to 'the notice of tiie police. At the time of the alleged acts, the parties were living at Waihi. On the first occasion, said the wife in evidence, she discussed the matter with her husband before visiting Thames friends who told her where to go and accompanied her to Auckland. The second and third miscarriages were procured at Waihi, she explained.

The husband said it was his wife a'ho first suggested procuring a miscarriage. He agreed to it. ___ The parties to the proceedings were Nancy Jessie Watters, of New Plymouth and Richard Frederick Walters, of Waihi. Dismissal of I’leas

In dismissing both the petition and the cross-petition, His Honour referred to the evidence of miscarriages in the following terms; "When the subject of abortion, was first introduced in this case, I indicated to counsel that the court could not be indifferent to evidence of criminal acts voluntarily given before the court. Counsel tor the petitioner thought the evidence was necessary for the purposes of his case, and counsel for the respondent has cross-exam-ined upon the topic and has also led evidence upon it. “Neither a husband nor a wife is a compellable witness against the other in a criminal prosecution, but an. admission on oath may be evidence against a person making an admission. Accordingly. I direct that the evidence and the documents in the case be impounded and brought to the notice of the police by the registrar of the court.