LATE LOCALS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1923, Page 3

LATE LOCALS

“This is a marriage, and yet il is not a marriage,” said Mr 11. Y. Widdowsoii. S.M., when he had heard the facts in a maintenance case which was before him at Christchurch. A woman was seeking to have separation, maintenance, and guardianship orders made against her husband on the grounds of habitual drunkenness. “Arc you a widow ” asked her counsel, Mr S. L. McCarthy. “Xu.” said witness. ‘•lnn I hadn’t seen mv first husband for seven years v. hen I got married again. I came to the Court here and they said it would he all right, so we were married in the Registrar's office." '1 lie Magistrate said that bv waiting for seven years the woman had protected hersell from a criminal prosecution for bigamy. hut she was not divorced from her first husband, and so lie could not make the orders against the second man. Comnhiinant stated that her first husband, Ollivcr. was in Australia. The man to whom she had been married in March, 191(1, was at present giving her £..J per week. The case was allowed to drop. According to the Atl. if the first husband is dead, the other two parlies arc legally married, but il Ollivcr is still alive, the children ol the second union arc illegitimate.