" I KNOW I HAVE A BOY IN A MILLION"

NZ Truth, Issue 1153, 5 January 1928, Page 5

" I KNOW I HAVE A BOY IN A MILLION"

Potter's Philanderings 'Neath The Passion Vine

ERNEST THE WORSHIPPER— AND VICTORIA THE WORSHIPPED

Having gone, over the preliminaries of his marriage, etc., Gilligan's evidence was that there were no children, and they had lived with his wife's mother. When he mentioned the matter of children as helping to complete the home, his wife, he said, replied that she would sooner take poison than have them. Matters in the ma-in-l.'iw's house were not happy. Petitioner sairt: "There were lots of reasons for it."

Finally, "Gillie" left home in July, 1922. "I clidn't dance and my wife was always going, to dances and coming home at two or three in the morning."

Then a week later, Gilligan got a letter from his wife's lawyer demanding maintenance. This roused his anger and he went to get his furniture. "If she was mean enough to sue me, I reckoned I'd take what was mine," he said. Describing the house, he said there were only three bedrooms. The one on the left was his mother-in-law's. Part of the verandah was canvassed in on that side.

It was about three p.m. when he arrived at the house and he stated that he found Ernie Potter with his wife. "Vickie" objected to her husband removing the furniture and asked him to show the receipt for it. "I hadn't one," he said, "as I had given her the money to pay, for it." Gilligan must 'have been still more surprised when his wife said to him: "You'd better not come around the house any more as 'Ernie' doesn't like it and it will only cause rows." The maintenance .order was made, and a variation later applied for which demanded that Gilligan pay 30/- a

He Fell In Love

week. This payment, he said, he had kept up except when he had been out of work.

He had seen his wife and Ernie Potter together "stacks of times" between the middle of 1925 and the present date, and always arm-in-arm. Frequently, he had watched the house, and Potter always lived there except when at sea. The canvas blind had been shifted to the other side of the verandah and so had the bed. "Potter still sleeps in it, just outside my wife's window," he stated. Gilligan went on to tell how he had fallen in love with a girl about three years after he separated from his wife. They were still very fond of each other. She knew he was married, and was willing to wait until he was free. It was this that caused him to write to his wife and brought back the sixpage screed. As to the bach where the girl lived, her mother and father were there, too. His bach was at the back.

The vigils which Gilligan had kept over his anti-divorce wife had resulted in him seeing them coming out and going back many times. They, came in any time between 10.30 and 11.30 p.m. They seemed on "affectionate terms and sometimes "Ernie" undressed on the verandah, sometimes elsewhere. The first inquiry agent Gilligan had engaged had proved a frost, according to him, so he engaged another. On the night of June 4, he went to the Musical Box Cabaret and watched Mrs. Gilligan and her Boy (with the capital "B"). They sat in a corner and danced to- < gether all the time.

When they left, about 10.30 p.m., the husband did likewise, and picking up his inquiry agent outside his mother-in-law's house, they set themselves to watch developments. Having entered/ the house, "Vickie and "Ernie" returned to the verandah. From the side alley where the two w.atchers had gone, they heard the two others talking for a long time. When they had said good-night, the watchers left.

Sleuth Drops In

Sunday, the following night, the suspected pair returned in "Ernie's" car about 10.30 p.m., and drove down the side way to the yard. At this time, the canvas screen was up. They came into the house by the back door and Mrs. Gilligan came to the verandah and let the blind down. Potter, the Boy in the story, broke off at the door of "Vickie's" room. The light went up and "The Boy" undressed. Both front door and bedroom door were open. Ernie had put on pyjamas. Next he put the light out and came onto the verandah. The watchers took their boots off, crept up to the house and, at what he thought the right moment, the sleuth said: "Now's our chance." They sped onto the verandah and a flash of the torch told them what they wanted to know. "I said: 'That'll do me.' My wife said, 'Who's there?' and we ran for it, and hid again." Under cross-examination by Lawyer Inder, the petitioner did not deny that he had been sentenced to -three months for failure to keep up his maintenance, but he denied that he was putting a wrong construction on his wife's actions with the idea of obtaining a divorce. The first inquiry agent he had employed had been sacked. "When they stormed the verandah, his wife was dressed. Gilligan and the inquiry agent had to rush on to the verandah because on one side, the blind was down and on the other, there was a passion-fruit vine. The night previously, said petitioner, Ernie undressed on the verandah and his wife came out after. Lawyer Inder referred to an incident at Muriwai -which he alleged was the cause of the separation. This Gilligan denied.

"You know Mrs. Gilligan's mother keeps a small boardinghouse?" asked respondent's lawyer. But Lawyer Singer answered for his client: "It must be a very small one. Some of them must sleep on the roof." (Laughter).

"Gillie" admitted that he had lived in Kyber Pass at the house of a Mr. and Mrs. Myers who had looked after him. Sometimes a Miss' Potter had come and cooked meals for him. She had later taken over the room from him. "I deny that there were any complaints from her parents about her coming too frequently to my room. "Gillie" had said nothing when the torch-light had flashed on that Sunday night. "We cleared. I wasn't looking for a hiding from the three men in the house. After we had gone

)^"niiiuiiiiHiHiiniiiiiiiiMMiiHiMiiiMiiini!Hiii!iiHniiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiM<in | (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) | | "I suppose I will change my views some day — when I do, f | I will let you know." j | So wrote Mrs. Gilligan, nee Victoria Madeline Comino, § j on the subject of divorce to her husband, William Leonard § j Gilligan, on July 1 9, 1926; but up to December of this j | year she had not changed her mind and it remained for § | Judge Reed to change it for her, much against her will | ;iimii!iffummiHiiimmmi<iMmiiiiiiiiiitmMiiiimmiMiiimiiimimiin^

The rest of her evidence was a

DIDN'T BELIEVE IN DIVORCE.— V ligan, the respondent, and her mother

out and hidden, my wife came out and passed the place where we were." After a few* questions from Lawyer Gallagher on behalf of the co-re., the private inquiry man was called. The sleuth had apparently watched the suspected pair from their home to the Regent Pictures, and when they had left the tram, they had walked the rest of the way arm-in-arm. When they got home they were talking until midnight. What they said, he could not hear. .

On Sunday night after .watching- the rest of the household go to bed, he detailed, the happenings which followed the return of "Vickie" and "Ernie" up to the fiual flashing of the light.

Pie was certain "Ernie" was in his pyjamas when he came out on the verandah. That flash of the torch re-

vealed things which were ing"l said: 'That should satisfy you?' and Gilligan replied: 'That'll do me.'" When 'Vickie 1 ' or Mrs. Gilligan -was called, the co-respondent was requested to leave the court. "Our separation was caused by ! what happened at Muriwai," she said. "1 saw a signed statement from a certain lady and taxed my husband with it." She had she said, frequently had to take steps to enforce her maintenance order. Respondent said that the date when her. husband swore he had first seen her with "Ernie" under compromising' circumstances was at least ten months before she had met him. "My husband has done everything to get me to divorce him," she said,; "for reasons of my own, I won't do it — I don't believe in it." Further, she announced: "I admit I frequently, go to dances with him; we are very good pals. He ha.s recently got a small car."

staunch denial of the allegations against her and "Ernie" at any time, or the two nights in particular. She was quite aware, she said, that there was a watch on the house on Sunday night and^she had awakened her mother and made her get out of bed to come and look at the men who were watching. To Lawyer Gallagher she said that while .her mother and herself were watching the watchers, "Ernie" was placidly reading in the kitchen. "I don't su ppose, Mrs. Gilligan, that you suggest your married life was supremely happy?" was Lawyer Singer's opening question.

"Oh, yes, it was, until the Muriwai incident." You're very

fond of dancing? ictoria Madeline Gil- —No. I ■ f Mrs. Etta Comino. very fond of it. Well, you made a habit of it? — When he went boxing I went dancing.

"But you'd go dancing and he'd go Muriwaing, was that it?" said counsel.

Regarding the question of children, "Vickie" said that "Gillie" "couldn't have kept one, because all his money went on motor-bikes."

It was brought out that respondent had first met "Ernie" at a, dance at the Hauraki Plains when . she went down to stay with a girl friend. "I only had a dance with him and never spoke to him after," she said. Then you met him in Auckland? — Yes, at a dance.

He must be fond of dancing? — Evidently.

This dance was a public one at the

Trades Hall, and was not by appointment? — Just accidental. "Ernie" was then on holiday, and he did not come to visit her, but she met him at several dances. The following November, "Vickie" met him in Queen Street. He had left the plains and was on a boat. It was that month, four years ago, that he came to stop at her mother's house. Since then he had always lived at their house when he was in Auckland. "When did you advance him to the position of your x 'Boy'?" demanded Lawyer Singer. "I didn't know that I ever regarded him as my boy." . With the letter in his hand/counsel remarked: "But this is the man whom you've given up all your girl friends fo,r, and he's given up all his boy friends for you." . "Did you have any more boys?"— No, I haven't had anyone. His Honor: What constitutes a "boy"? . "Something more than one you just go out with," replied Lawyer Singer,

"a boy is something with the pure and complete attachment . . . Where he is the worshipper and she is the worshipped. Capital B for Boy and W for Worship," with a glance at the letter; Dancing was debated for some moments, and respondent admitted that some weeks she went twice, sometimes not at all, but during the last four years, if "Ernie" had not been in Auckland she had gone with no one in particular — perhaps a young lady friend or by herself.

During your marriage you went dancing? — Only when he went boxing. Was it a reprisal? — My habit, at his suggestion.

Your husband used to go with a well-known dentist — a Mr. Walker of this town — to boxing didn't he? — I don't know.

Didn't Mr. Potter want to marry you? — He did no such thing. Not all these five years? (The lawyer appeared amazed) — No he didn't.

He's been very fond of you, hasn't he? — I don't know.

Was there no way of finding out? — I haven't asked him.

Is he or is he not the gentleman you refer to as your Boy? — Yes. Ah ! We've got something definite. Is he still your Boy? Is he the Boy you refer to in your letter?— Yes. AVhy don't you believe in divorce? — Just because I don't.

Pressed, she added: "I don't believe you can have two husbands alive at once. A 'Boy' is- different from a hus-

band."

"Ernie," she admitted had been out with other women and, so far as she was concerned, he was at liberty to go out with any other woman he pleased.

"Heart In Hand"

Is the "Ern" referred to in your letter, the one you went to Wellington to see off? — I didn't. But you were there all the same? — He was bringing a parcel of some shoes from Australia. What were you busy at? — Oh, I used to write all sorts of things to put him off. Was it fair, when your husband came to you with his heart in his "hand, and asked you to make him. a free man? Why not answer his appeal to freedom? — He was going with another girl. I was quite aware of what I wrote. Quoting again from a letter counsel read: "I'm yearning- for someone to care for me." — He didn't yearn long. I can have my beliefs. Do you think you are going to rule the word? — No, I'm only ruling him. "Thank heaven," remarked the lawyer, "some of the New Zealand laws are more merciful than some of The New Zealand women."

"Ern," said respondent, was not at home every week-end: some of them he went trips to the lighthouses. I suppose he's kissed you? — I suppose he has. I suppose often? — I don't say often. Not when he ,jot home, not in the sometimes when he said g-ood-*night, it was finally discovered. You used to return those little oscillatory attentions? — I did sometimes. You kissed him before he got the car? — Yes.

Did you and your boy ever cuddle? — No, we did not.

I don't wish to pry into your boy and girl affairs, but what was the favorite time when you would kiss each other? — When he was going away. They didn't make a practice of it, she said, but it was mostly in the kitchen.

Tom Goldsmith, a boarder of mature years and philosophc temperament, who said he slept in the room 'neath the passion-fruit vine, stated that he was asleep throughout the whole "performance," as he termed it which took place on the Sunday night. He had

Potter's Story

only heard of it a few days ago, but he didn't think people could see from across the road.

As to the two being- lovers he couldn't say, because they wouldn't manifest much of* that sort of thing in Iront of htm. i Ernest Potter, the man in the case, a smart-looking young fellow described the first meeting at Ngatea when he was an enginedriver and had met Vickie by chance in Auckland. He also told how she had said when she knew he must live somewhere, "What about mother's place." He knew she was a married woman. He had had his car about eleven months. He took her to pictures, and dances, and paid a retaining- fee for his room, when he was away, of 10/- a week so that he could have somewhere to put his clothes. The room he slept in was the same one as Mr. Goldsmith's. He did not remember having slept on the verandah. "What about the inquiry agent and what took place? What have you to say about that? — I wouldn't like to say it in court. As to the rest of the story, it was untrue. "Not necessarily," was his reply to Lawyer Singer when asked if there was an attraction ;n the house. She's your girl, isn't she?— No. Well, you're her boy? — No. "He worships me,' " read Lawyer Singer from a letter. "You'll admit that?" — "No, I won't." Come, fair doos! — In what direction? Well, you take her to dances and pictures and out in your car, and kiss her good-night? — No. He admitted that he had kissed her good-night. "Well, that's strange, isn't it? "Not nowadays," interrupted Counsel Inder. \ "Well, you're yqunger than I am," and Lawyer Singer beamed on the respondent's counsel. You follow the custom of the age and kiss your sweetheart? — No. You Avanted to marry her, didn't you? — I didn't. If she got divorced you'd marry her, wouldn't you?— No, I wouldn't. Did .she like a cuddle— just a human cuddle — did she? What's your favorite spot? Lawyer Inder interjected "Beer," but the co-re, replied: "Nowhere in particular." He. denied., that he had given her a cuddle the day previously, but said there was another married woman ho

had kissed, and did not know if Mrs, Gilligan knew it.

But he informed the court that "If I walked down the street with a girl half an hour after I'd met

her I'd take her arm."

He was never sure they were being watched, and he had never heard anyone say: "You'll be satisfied now," on the Sunday night. Mrs. Gilligan was in Wellington when the Maunganui was there. He had stayed on the ship and she had stayed at an hotel, which one he did not know. He knew nothing about the boat being delayed. "I wouldn't say she went down es-. pecially to see me," was the modest retort to another question.

If Mrs. Gilligan said she had waited in Wellington it might be so. Very minutely he was led to tell how they had spent the Sunday evening when out in .the car, before the incident on the verandah. They might have gone as far as Otahuhu, but they had gone down a blind road — it was a mistake. "Yes! yes! that's a favorite thing they do," conceded Counsel Singer. Did you give her a little soothing caress? — No, I did not. "What, no indication of affection in three hours?" and counsel seemed shocked. * "Ernie" explained that he was not yet sufficiently experienced a driver to manage a car with one hand. They only stopped at the end of the blind road, lawyer Singer was astonished at the admission that as witness was

Wife's Accusation

leaving next day, there was no other caressing. The mother-in-law of the petitioner was next called, Etta Comino, but she <was able to add very little light to things except that she slept in one of the front rooms and always with her window open.

Husband and wife had had, as she put it, frequent "busts up." Her daughter had accused him of talcing other girls out on his motorcycle. ,

"I've never seen anything between my daughter and Potter that I could object to. They are just good pals." Kissing and cuddling she had never seen.

"Did you know divorce was her great horror?" asked Lawyer Singer when it came to his turn. "I didn't know about that." '

In his summing up, his honor referred to it as an extraordinary case in many respects. The jury were advised to use their general knowledge of the world! The question of whether there was platonic affection in. this was /'a case which might be considered. .

"Of course, one side or the other had lied deliberately," observed the judge.

After an absence of less than an hour, the jury brought in a verdict against the respondent arid corespondent with costs against the corespondent on the lower scale, with an allowance of £6 ss. fror each oounsel for the second day.

Respondent and her mother, it was to be noticed, walked out of one door, but "Ernie" took the side door into the passage when the little family party left the court-room.