MAX MEILSCH'S MISSUS.

NZ Truth, Issue 127, 23 November 1907, Page 5

MAX MEILSCH'S MISSUS.

SUES HER FAMILY FOR SUPPORT.

An Unnatural Mother's Tough

Claim.

Her Gaol-bird Husband the One.

to Maintain Her!

The passage of time brings .about some strange revenges. When Rosina Eleanora Cullen deserted her husband and young family seventeen years ago} she did not think she would appeal to her abandoned children m later years to provide her with the help that she refused to give to her offspring when they badly needed a mother's care. There was :>orf,ething sha.-ffuJ about the mother's departure, something about a man who was not her husband, and she has been a stranger to her family ever since. Her husband obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion, and the woman, now moving on m years, yet withal retaining a certain refinement of bearing and speech, two years ago met and married a I'epulsive looking man named Meilsch, very much her junior, who later used an axe , on; her m" .Wellington, .and is even now serving sentence for his homicidal impulse. Her children had to battle for' themselves, but beine of an unusual strain of Irish-Scandi-J navian blood they seem to have inherited the faculty to raise themselves out of the common, and did fairly well. The second girl, Anna Maria, married George Phoenix Hindmarsh, a Poverty Bay farmer and .brother of Lawyer Hinclmarsh, of Wellington ; the eldest daughter became Mrs Bmm a Frances Cochrane, whose husband is a Masterton commission agent, and another girl resides with the couple and had been practically kept- all her life by Mrs Cochrane. George Henry Cullen, a son, is a. compositor m a Masterton newspaper office, and seven years ago shook xip the dry bones of Government Printing Office, which was then the refuge of elderly incapablcs to the exclusion of serviceable young fellows like George, who kicked up a most, ungodly row m the newspapers* until Chief Printer McKay gave him a job. It is a. singular thing that on Monday last George couldn't attend Wellington S.M. Court to defend a maintenance . suit instituted

BY . HIS DISRESPECTED mother because he was sitting on that day for a University degreerather an unusual happening for a comp. As remarked, the mother turned up like' a bad penny or a much ejected cat and sued Anna Maria, Emma Frances,, and George Henry, for maintenance. It first occurred to her to appeal to them when her murderous second consort, Meilsch, .mistook her for <i length of firewood. It ■ Was the first time she had manifested interest m their welfare since they Were children, and they replied m discouraging tones.

It appears from the woman's statement m the witness-box that she had been carrying on the business of midwife,- but she had only earned six guineas m three months. Her earnings for assisting the population to be born' was supplemented sometimes by letting a couple of rooms m her house m Abel-Smith Street. Her son George was married, had one child, and was drawing £3 a week. In reply to MiGrey , who defended, she said she had not told George that she was making £300. a year as midwife. She denied going away with another man when she left her husband ami a daughter of 15 to bring up and care for the ' Other children. Meilsch, the champion chopper m these parts, was a physically strong person of 30 years and not 28 as alleged by ill-na-tured counsel, and. if he was- much younger than herself— well, 1 what about it, anyway. ?... -She expected him out of quod m January, and it was reasonable to assume that he would then take up

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN of providing for her. She was m Masterton a couple of months ago, but she didn't go near her daughter, Mrs Cochrane, nor did she tell , her son<Jeorp;e that if her daughter didn't make due provision for her she would come up and start, her midwifery business m Masterton and shame them all. When she was up that way her son tyrannised over her considerably and nearly struck her on one occasion. She was not a welcome guest. Ten y^ears ago she went to. America and enjoyed the voyage very much. She denied that she had cut herself oft from, her family and asserted . that they, had cut themselves off from her. "I have been a good mother . to .them all," she remarked, with emotion. . She didn't tell her son that her business was so extensh c as to necessitate the assistance of two other nurses, although she did employ and was training two young girls, whose principal business it was to wash the babies after confinement. She was paving 15s a week. rent. James Wallace Cochrane, the Masterton agent aforesaid, stated that he had been married eleven years, and had received no communication from his wife's mother until twelve months ae;o, when she applied for assistance. When the mother cleared out she left five children to make their own way m the world. His wife was pos-sessed-of no property or means outside his own estate. "

Evidence was also given .by Geo Hindmarsh.

Magistrate Riddell said the case was a peculiar one. The mother acknowledged having deserted her children seventeen years ago, but had held no communication with them since excepting her correspondence with them during the past ' twelve months.- Her two daughters resisted the claim upon themselves on the ground that they were not possessed of property. The woman had a husband, now m custody, who would be released m two months' time.

HE WAS THE PROPER PERSON to support her and upon whom the first liability would fall. She was not entirely destitute, and considering the relation of the parties the daughters might contribute if their husbands were so disposed, but they had refused to do so. There was evidence sufficient to show that the daughters tfere not able to contribute, and against them the informations would be dismissed. The son George had written to the Court explaining the reason for his absence, and the case against him would be adiourned for a week to allow him to appear.