MODEL WIFE

NZ Truth, Issue 1141, 13 October 1927, Page 6

MODEL WIFE

« Beaumont's Second Venture (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Rep.) It was with a tragic air that Lawyer Singer appealed to Magistrate Hunt for a solution of the domestic complications of his client, George Newton Beaumont. "TP your worship can work the matter out so that he can pay . . ." "Cut off his tobacco and beer money!" suggested the S.M. "I've known my client for a number of years and he does not drink, smoke or go to races," was counsel's retort. Reference was made to Mrs. Beaumont's devotion to household labors. She had even started a fish-and-chip shop m an effort to swell the family account, but her enterprise had met with failure. However, the wonder-wife to whom Lawyer Singer referred was Mrs. Beaumont the second, the legal shears of the Supreme Court having cut the nuptial bonds of George's first matrimo"nial venture m October, 1923. It was not a clean cut, though, for a few Strands Of responsibility still held George to his first choice. These took the form of an alimony order for the wife, Kathleen Winifred, and her child, George, having consented to pay 35/- a week. But George, who is a butcher by occupation, apparently forgot all about his initial trip through the meadows of matrimony, although he wasted no time m returning to the connubial pastures with a second Mrs. Beaumont. The result was that Kathleen and her child slipped into the misty corridors of the past, the only dedication to their memory, so far as Beaumont was concerned, being the gradually increasing amount of arrears. Up to August 20, the sum total of George's neglect stood at £354/9/- and as a monument of arrears Kathleen Winifred reckoned it was getting a bit top-heavy. The Charitable Aid Board thought likewise, so Mrs. Beaumont No. 1 decided to let Magistrate Hunt know all about it. She called upon Lawyer Les. Adams to tell how badly she and her eight-and-a-half-year-old child were m need of George's 35/- a week. "The wife is getting into hot water with the Charitable Aid Board," said counsel for complainant. "She is a frail little woman, sir, and cannot work." And sure enough, it was a frail and troubled-looking woman who sidled up to her lawyer. Counsel Singer put his client into the witness-box to prove to his worship that under the circumstances it was impossible for him to comply with the alimony order. His wages were £5 a week, he told the bench, and his second marriage had resulted m three children. "What do you pay for rent?" asked the magistrate. "Two pounds a week at Penrose," replied George. "Can't you get a cheaper house?" But defendant informed his worship that he was paying off the house. "Don't you get your meat for nothing?"— "No, sir." "At trade price, then?" — "Very seldom, sir." And so the case reached a deadlock stage and counsel for defendant invited the S.M. or Lawyer Adams to suggest some means of eliminating the problem. Brain-waves didn't flood the court, however, and his worship, m declining to make an order, decided that the matter should stand over for a month.