PASSES IT ON

NZ Truth, Issue 1148, 1 December 1927, Page 7

PASSES IT ON

TWO TRIPS

Maintenance of Son's Family Falls On Grandfather

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Aucki , land Rep.) Where is the husband of Annie Tyrie? She does not know, and her father -m - law, Alexander Tyrie, told Magistrate Cutten that he did not know either. ANNIE TYRIE when she became the daughter-in-law of Alexander Tyrie, who from the witness -box m the Auckland Magistrate's Court, told Lawyer* Whit© he was a master plasterer of Dunedin, made him a grandfather. Annie's husband did the disappearing trick somewhere early tn their matrimonial relations, it appears, and an order was later made against the grandfather. This order had got m arrears and brought grandpa to court as aconsequence. Grandpa, on his part, came to support his claim for a variation of the order. Grandpa Alexander, when his personal affairs were probed into by Lawyer White, said that he was net now the head of his plastering business — he had handed it over to his sons. / It also transpired that with his wife he had made a trip to the Islands, but •when Lawyer White asked him if it were not a fact that he had taken his wife, he replied: "No, my • wife took me."

In fact there had been two trips, but as Lawyer Sullivan remarked, these two trips had been the only ones m a great number of years. Grandpa Tyrie did not contradict his daughter-in-law's counsel that his expenses might have run into about £25 to come up from Dunedin to defend the case, and he admitted that for a part of the time m Auckland he had been staying at a Queen Street hotel. He had not encouraged his son to refuse to pay the order for his daughter-in-law's maintenance. Tackled as to his means he replied that they were of such a negligible quantity that he was entitled to apply. for the old age pension, and he had not made any of his property over to his wife. She had means of her own from her first husband. Re-examined by his own counsel, Lawyer Sullivan, Grandpa Tyrie said that. all he had m the bank was about £30. "In fact the girl's father is better* off than you are," suggested counsel. The wife of the vanished husband, Annie Tyrie, stated that the order was for 32/6 for herself and £1 a week for her child. ";My husband until he vanished was working m Dunedin for his father; he never paid regularly and it was always necessary to take out a warrant to make him." The child's grandfather had never offered to assist her by deducting the money from his wages. "I've had to work from the day I was married," announced the young wife. "The child is sickly and I have had to keep him under a doctor for two years." Under cross-examination from Lawyer Sullivan, Annie said she had to pay £2 6s. a week for herself and the child; she could not get accommodation for less. "You expect the court to believe that?" was the legal man's rejoinder.

Magistrate Cutten made an order against Grandfather-'Tyrie to pay up arrears of £7 10s., and he reduced the order to 7/6 a week.