Tall Man With a Short Nose Or a Short Man With a Long Nose? A Sharp Rebuff

NZ Truth, Issue 1174, 31 May 1928, Page 7

Tall Man With a Short Nose Or a Short Man With a Long Nose?

A Sharp Rebuff

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DIVORCE SECRET OF GRASS WIDOW'S LONELY HOME

He Never Signed

The Naked Truth

Victorious Player

■ : ♦ .'■■■.■' ' ' Wife Guillotines Peeping Husband With Window During Eruption In Volcanic Road

DID WILHELMINA QUALIFY FOR KEWPIE CLUB MEMBERSHIP?

And having dressed herself, she hurried off to Mt. Roskill police station, while her husband rang up his wife's sister, Mrs. Nicholls; at. the Graf ton Bridge flats. Later he rang up another sister, Mrs. Rice, at the same place. • For. the wife, 'Lawyer Singer led off his cross- examination by asking: "Up to October last, you say you had led the happiest . of married lives. That is not true, is it?" — "No." "No, of course, it's not; about three years ago your wife consulted me about a separation order on account of your drunkenness." * Petitioner did not deny that this might be true, but he did deny that he was . m the ! . habit of abusing and threatening her. He did not remember asking her back to make it up. Asked why his wife ran out of the house without her hat "or shoes last October, Player responded: "Why?" "Weren't you m a drunken' state?" Player denied that such was the case; "it was her own temperament — she had no inducement from me then." That was the occasion- that you locked her . out?" — "She was so often out that I said she had better stay out. I didn't lock her out." "What were her reasons for wanting to go away "—"No iflea." Answering the question tas to whether his wife had not complained to her own and his relations, petitioner replied: "I was never drunk yet." "You threw food all over the place on one occasion and apple sauce on the wall?" inquired respondent's counsel. Petitioner could recall something of the kind, but m regard to the apple sauce he replied that he did not remember it.

Lawyer McLiver, for Player, objected to the line of cross-examination taken up by his. learned friend, but Lawyer Singer submitted that it was quite justified as a test of the petitioner's credibility. Player admitted that m October last his wife had taken proceedings against him m the Magistrate's Court. An agreement of separation had been drawn up between them and his wife had taken the furniture. He did not refute the fact that he had borrowed money from his wife or that he had given her an acknowledgment of a debt to her of £175 m September, 1925. • * Counsel: "In March, 1925, by deed of covenant, you. admitted that you owed' your wife' another sum of £100— and you agreed to pay m a certain way and at a certain time?". . For some moments no answer was forthcoming. Lawyer Singer pressed the point by asking if petitioner's own brother had not drawn up the deed by which the wife was to receive the furniture m lieu of the money. Player replied that his brother had never read it to him — he should have done so, but never did. On certain matters concerning: this agreement he seemed reluctant to speak. Counsel was compelled to read from the agreement to refresh the petitioner's memory. This brought forth the answer: "I never read, it and I never signed it." . In accordance with this agreement, Player had ceased, paying his wife miiminiimmiiimi iiiiuiiiiitimiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiinmiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiimn

t^iHiiiiiiiimiiiNiiiumimiiMniinniiiiniiniiniiiininnnnMmiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiMii nimimimmmmiimmmmiuiMmiimiimiiimimmiimiiimiMmimiMiiiiNiiimiiiMMiiNiiMHiiiiMn™ rzt ii , . ' (From "N;Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) II || THERE WERE ALL THE INGREDIENTS of an up-to-date novel m the story unfolded at the Auckland ||, |! Supreme Court last week before Judge McGregor and a jury, when Ralph Gordon Player, a builder, sought to |( If obtain a divorce from his wife, Elizabeth Frieda Wilhelmina Player, nee Kamps, on the ground of misconduct ff ft with a co-respondent unknown. I| || A house m which the wife lived apart from her husband, whose suspicions would seem to have been aroused; an || II evening visit by the husband m company with a friend; the two men hiding under the house; mysterious footsteps || || up the path; an open door and voices within; the two watchers peeping through the window; the retreat of the ([ || husband's friend, followed by the husband lifting the window and having it brought down on his neck, holding || j| him man undignified position while a nimble wife, m only the very flimsiest of garments, contrived to throw "the || [I key of the door to her unidentified admirer,.who escaped unrecognized. - \\ fiimiiiiiliiiililililitiniiliililiiiiiimiiiiiiiin imiiimimmiiim mil iiiiiiiiimiiiiiminiiimuiNimiiMimiim iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiniimii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiraiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiruiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiini minim tiiiiimiiiiiiiimiiimimint iininniiiiiiiiiiiiini mimiiiiiui iinim miiimimiiiiiimiiiimiiimii iiiimiiilriiimimiiiumfi

maintenance m January. He had pleaded that he could not pay £2 a week and had asked, that it be reduced to 30/-/

"When did you pay the last maintenance?" — '\Last Saturday week."

"A few days before January 14, you telephoned youE> wife, saying you wanted to see her?" — "Yes."

■ Further questioned, Player replied that he presumed the house where his wife was living belonged to Mrs. Nicholls, who had engaged him to do the work because he was out of employment.

There was considerable beating of the air when petitioner was questioned as to where and for whom he was working on Saturday, January 14, but it was finally ascertained that he ,had been working for the Papatoetoe Council; he was working as a nav,vy. This information caused Lawyer Singer to remark: "Nothing to be ashamed of m that!" Then again, petitioner, after being nsked ori what train he came back to Auckland, replied that he couldn't nay where he had been working or for whom. He did not even remember whether he had been to Papatoetoe on that date or where he had worked since the beginning of the year. Finally Lawyer Singer became a little hot under the collar. "Answer me and don't shuffle!" he exclaimed. This elicited the reply thafPlayer had been at Papatoetoe — so far as he could recollect. "On January 14 your home was at View Road, Mt. Eden?" pursued respondent's lawyer. "I think it was." Player stated that he had- arranged to meet Southgate at the Dominion Road terminus at eight-twerity on the evening of the fourteenth. The reason he rang his wife was to ask if it would be convenient' to bring the maintenance money; it was nciliing to do with the money owing for work done for Mrs. Nicholls. "Did not your wife decline to speak to you, because you were drunk?"— "No, certainly not." Having gone over some of the details as to what happened from the time of his arrival .with Southgate at the house m Volcanic Road, petitioner said that his friend and fellow-scout had looked through the window. "He looked through for the space of a second and then you asked him to go away?" suggested Lawyer Singer. Player explained that Southgate had not wished to be mixed up m it. "You said: 'Southgate left at my wish'?"

To this the judge objected; it was, his honor announced, incorrect. "It if) m my notls," replied counsel for respondent. Judge McGregor leaned forward and said with some heat: "You need not bother about your notes, Mr. Singer! These are the official notes." Counsel picked his notes up from the table and read ; "At my wish Sauthgate went away." "That is not correct," was the rejoinder from the bench. The lawyer, however, persisted that he had written it down at the time. The air was by this time electric and his honor's tones more than a little strident. "I am not accustomed to my notes being questioned — or being shown to be incorrect by counsel's memoranda," he said. "Your own note is wrong!" Lawyer Singer replied that he was not questioning his honor's notes, but the judge retorted that this was what counsel had been doing. However, the breeze eventually blew out when Lawyer Singer said he could only apologise for having made a mistake m his* own notes. Player having had his glance through the window, then tried to enter. "You called out and she answered?" asked counsel. Once again Lawyer Singer's question led to a correction from the bench; he was told to follow the notes. "There is not a word about an answer," said his honor. "The only answer, apparently, was pushing the window down on his head. That' was a very effective answer." This had hardly blown over when once again the bench took respondent's counsel to task. With considerable heat the lawyer was told: "Will you be good enough to follow my ruling that your note is wrong again? You are simply trying to mislead the jury. It is very shortsighted of you. You will not do it!" Again Lawyer Singer protested that his intention was being misunderstood and again he was told to go on with his questions. Player having extricated himself from his unpleasant predicament, his wife ran off to the police station, though without saying where she was 'going. He used her telephone. "You telephoned Mrs. Rice?" "Yes." "Did you tell her that the worst of it was you had no witness?" — "I made no mention of a witness." Player later said that he went" to the Grafton Flats and spoke to Rice, his brother-in-law. • "Did. you tell Mr. Rice that you had discovered your wife naked with a strange man?" Player replied that he had, not said his wife was naked. He further denied haying told Rice that he had seen his wife naked on a settee— or that she was very strong —and had held him at the window. It was dusk and he could not distinguish the man. He thought, however, that he was fairly tall and cleanshaven, with his hair "between colors." ' >• ' He .had not told Rice, that it was a

short man or that he thought there was a third party m the bedroom. He admitted having said that he thought his wife had been above such a thing. Arthur Southgate, who announced that he was a contractor, proved to be a fairly, stout man with an "Old Bill" moustache. He toOk a very firm grip with both hands . on the sides of the witness-box. Answering Lawyer McLiver, he said that he remembered the fourteenth of ."/anuary very well; he had met Player at the: Dominion Road terminus about i eight p.m. "•-,■■'

From their concealment under the house he had heard sounds above. They were there about five or ten minutes. .He was not aware that Mrs. Player lived there. .

After the episode of the knock on the door and the voices above, he crept out. The>house was still m darkness.

When he had his peep through the

window he "could not see what the' woman had on," but the man was wearing a dark suit. His form hid the woman, who had a bare arm around his back. Southgate was reluctant to give details .until his honor -remarked: "Tell us what you saw;' there's no good mincing matters!'" Both parties were on the settee, with their faces towards the room, and they could not see anyone looking through the window. "Player rapped on the win.d.ow," : continued Southgate, "and said: 'What's going on m there?' Then he threw the window up, pushed his head in — and immediately the I window was pulled down on him/ It caught him on the back of the neck." "What did you do ?" asked Lawyer McLiver.. "I left then," was the com-

prehensive answer. The court thoroughly enjoyed the joke.

When the laughter subsided. Southgate remarked: "I'd no wish to be there," to which his honor observed: "I quite understand."

In reply to the bench, witness said there were no signs of drink on Player.

Southgate told Lawyer Singer that he had known Player about three years. He did know Mrs. Player, but not at the present time.

When this somewhat peculiar statement was explained, it transpired. , that he had known . her about fourteen years^ ago, when she was single. _ She was ' then known as Miss Frieda Kamps. " ,

Before putting 'his client m the wit-ness-box, Lawyer Singer made some remarks to the rarity of cases m which Co-respondents were not produced.

In this case, however, an order had been granted enabling the petitioner

to dispense with the naming of the

co-respondent. ■ "~ ■ • The story told by petitioner, counsel classified as "preposterous." ' Had. not Player every opportunity of breaking the window or door, grabbing the intruder by the necik and then demanding his card? Elizabeth Frieda Wilhelmina Player was called from her seat m front of the dock, from which position she had frequently prompted Lawyer Singer, ahd took her place m the witness-box. Sheij Was a .study m buff -coloured costume and small hat which came well down over her forehead. The allegations of h^er* husband she' categorically denied, while she maintained that she had met with ill-treat-ment at his hands and that their married life had not been a path of roses. When Mrs. Player expected her husband to call it was her custom, she

announced, to lock all doors and windows.

That evening she had come home about four o'clock. She was fully dressed and reading the paper.

Player had telephoned that he wanted £4, which, he said, wsts. due to him.

As his speech over the telephone sounded to her as if he were drunk, she had refused to speak to him.

It was for this reason that she had locked, up the house. She thought she had put the catch on the windows. About 6.30 Player had called out to her: "Hey, there! Get out of this. Although I'm drunk, I'm going to get m."

Her husband did not push his head through the window. "I wished he had," declared respondent.

When he finally entered the house, he had smashed her reading glasses. Apparently, his greeting was: "This is fine — look at yourself . . ."

This he followed up by using a term to her which is not customary between husband and. wife — and which held a grave reflection on her morality. . "Fancy anyone paying you £2 a week . . . and my people starving," was his next remark. "I just thought this was going on!"

He. had riiade no reference to a man, but just said: "I'll get him. yet!" - Lawyer Singer: "Was there any

man there?"

"Of course not."

All this,, according to Wilhelmina, took, place between six-thirty and seven. '

. "I- was afraid of what he might do to me and ran; he ran after me."

The wife hid behind a verandah. It would seem that Player went ahead of her, for as she passed along Balmoral Road she saw him m a telegraph - booth. •

She hurried to the Mount. Roskill police station for Constable Belcher.

"The man my friend did not call;" remarked Lawyer Singer m an aside.

On their return to the house, Player wa3 there alone; continued the . wife. He informed t the constable that hie had a right there, as it was his wife's place. "He said: 'I'm not going- to pay that woman any maintenance.' " „■

Respondent also asserted that her husband had told the officer of the law he had been there with his bro-ther-in-law that night. . :

Having donned her hat, Mrs. Player went to see her sister. Mrs. Rice, at Grafton Flats.

"You say he drinks and knocks you about — and that you are frightened of him?" asked Lawyer McLiver when he had his turn. "Yes, I do." ;

Asked why — if he had been that kind

of a man — she would let him come to her sister's house-when she was on her own, respondent i*eplied that he only knocked her about' at night. He never came home unless he had been drinking; even on his building jobs he had beer with him. Mrs. Player denied that she drank herself. There had been no discussion about the path which her husband and Southgate had come to measure on the evening of the 14th. She had simply said that her sister could not afford it. When he had been working on the place, she had given him tea at times; she was not frightened to go out to him. '■■' "Your sister, Mrs. Nicholls, owns the Grafton Flats?" asked Lawyer McLiver. "No, she only has a share m them; Mrs. Rice lives on the place arid manages them for her." The only time respondent went to Dixieland was with her husband. "Have you ever driven m your sister's limpusine?"— -"Yes, and my husband didn't object." Questioned as to money matters and the • furniture . which she' had taken, Mrs. Player admitted that the piano was sold for £20, while she had made £ 175 at her work m two years and had put some of .it into the houses her. husband built, • On the Saturday night when her husband rang up, she knew he was drunk because he said everything twice.' A$ to the window, he did get m, she admitted, and she did try to stop him. Later, when both husband and wife were at Grafton Flats the same night — the husband with Rice m an empty flat and the wife with her relations — the husband said: "I thought this was going on." Petitioner's counsel asked Wilhelmina if shfe knew what he meant by that remark. "He accused me of it fourteen years ago," she replied. "He said: 'This isn't the first time I've caught you like this." Then she went on to tell how Player had suspected her three years ago, when a painter was working m the house. : ■ . The next witness called by respondent's, counsel was Harry Rice,, who gave his occupation as that of underwriting clerk. : . ■/■., A pale-faced man with quite a professional air and glasses, he announced that he was the husband of a sister of Mrs. Player's and lived at Grafton Flats; ■■■ ■•■■•.. . It was about 8.5 p.m. when his wife was called up by Player on the eventful Saturday night. Subsequently, Player came to the fiats about 9.30 p.m. There was a brief .conversation at the door and then Rice took him to an empty fiat, "because the ladies were apprehensive," ' "Hello, Harry! Have you heard the news?" was Player's greeting. Harry replied: "Only what my wife told me from the 'phone." Player followed: "I caught my wife naked with, another man."- '__„

Rice had proceeded so far when Lawyer Singer asked leave ' to recall Mrs. Player, as he had omitted to ask her a- certain question •"....

Again m the box, respondent was asked whether — prior to her husband coming to the window — anybody else had corns to the door.

She related how a boy named Allan Trevathen had called to return a basket which had been lent to his mother earlier m the week. ' -1 She took the basket and asked him how his mother was; he left without coming into the house. : . . .

Harry Rice returned to his story— this interruption over — to,, "describe how he had about two hours' discussion with Player, who gave him,- he said, the full account of the discovery of his wife's deceit. ' -'.■■. -

Player had declared that his wife, who was m the nude, Nad

stood upon the settee and, tried , to , pull the window down on him.. "What did he say about the man?" asked Lawyer Singer.

"The man, he said, made for the door. He had tried to intercept him, but his wife had struggled with him; meanwhile, the man ran to the door, found the door locked, came back and Player's wife managed to throw the key to the man, who then ran out."

As to the question of light and the identity of the man, Player had told Rice that he was a short man with a long nose. . Nothing was said about a tall man..

"Was there any suggestion about a third man?"— " Yes, he thought he had heard another man m the bddrdom." Rice went on to say that Player re-

ferred to the fact that he would not pay his wife any more maintenance and that he had finished with her.

"You asked him," queried Lawyer Singer, "if his wife was actually naked?"

"Yes; he said she was not actually, but from the waist down," and -witness indicated how Player had described her condition by placing his hands on his hips.

As to the question of Player having witnessed immorality, Rice replied that petitioner had said that he "did not actually see actual misconduct."

Questioned concerning petitioner's condition, witness : replied that his eyes were bloodshot. ' *

As to the wine which Rice was willing to give him, it seems that it never eventuated, for the. reason that the womenfolk objected — they did not like the idea of him mixing his drinks.

It had been mentioned by Lawyer Singer that Rice had put what the former termed some "categorial questions" to Player.

Lawyer McLiver, m his crossexamination, referred to these, but Rice said they were not categorial— just a series of questions which occurred to him.

His Honor: "You made a fairly lengthy cross-examination?"

Rice granted that he had done so on points which seemed to him pertinent to the incident.

As to the matter of giving a man more drink if he was then m a state of excitement, Rice explained that his

inff//jjfHHf{/frriitnnHi(iniiii»iif»ifrHtf»m//iflrninifmtrifrnj»n»iJfiminfnn{fßjr(ni!nniimmnir idea was that it would act as "a steadier to his nerves." His Honor: "Wouldn't you expect a man to be upset if he'd- seen what he 1 alleged he saw?" . ' Rice agreed that this was probable, while Lawyer ./Singer observed: "It depends upon", the person!'' Hip honor did not take the interruption kindly. "Pardon me, Mr. Singer, I'm asking this question!" Madge Trevathen and her son, Allan, sixteen and a-half years of age, gave evidence ■■, of returning ■ the • basket on the Saturday night. They lived opposite Mrs. Player's house arid the basket was returned about six o'clock. - Constable Belcher, of Mt. Roskill, was then called by counsel for respondent, as petitioner had not called him. He remembered Mrs. Player corning to the police : station on January 14, It was not as late as 8.45 p.m. - She was fuily clad, distressed and ' made a complaint to him, m consequence of which he went with her to } the house. f; "When they arrived there, they found t ' Player. After they had gone inside the ' gate, petitioner made a statement to « I him. i 0 ' - Player announced that the constable , could not interfere with him, as there was/no separation order, adding: that he was not .going to pay his wife maintenance, as he had. found a man m the house. This closed the case for the defence. : Lawyer Singer/ in making his address ".; to the jury, referred to the matter of *f his notes. • . ' "I am entitled to. assume that my' - notes are as correct .as those of the associate," was one of his announcements. He denied any a intention to mislead the' jury. "; Counsel drew attention to the great lapse of time between the night of the allegations of Mrs. Player's unfaithfulness and the date of the serving of the affidavit, April 16.' His construction was that the pro- ■ ceedings had been delayed until Player's wife had pressed for maintenance. Lawyer McLiver was equally emphatic as to the 1 rights of his case, laying stress on the peculiar conditions under which the wife lived. Judge McGregor's summing-up was of no great length, perhaps the ■ most potent portion of his address to the jury being: "You know, gentlemen, m. cases of this kind, perjury must be committed on one side or the other." < After an absence of about an hour,- ■-': the jury came to i the conclusion that if .: perjury had been committed, vas his honor suggested, it was not by the petitioner; They , gave a yer,dipt : in his favor. ''."■' The court, granted a decrees nisi to ,' be made, absolute m three months.