ONCE ABOARD LUGGER

NZ Truth, Issue 1174, 31 May 1928, Page 8

ONCE ABOARD LUGGER

Magistrate Decides Captaincy of Good Ship Matrimony (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) On Jane' 15, 1927, Edna Stuart arid Arthur Gordon Jackson, with youth at the tiller, hoisted a full sail of affection and slipped hlissfully forth on the seas of matrimony. .'".—.

T TNFORTUNAI'ELY. the compass of U true-love sometimes : takes fits of unaccountable oscillation. . Thus it was that the young . Jackson .. couple came very near x the r-ocks, arid after eleven -months. of' what appears tp have been "squally"- weatheV, put back to the nearest^ port; which happened to be the Auckland Maintenance Court. "./ Lawyer Matthews piloted Edna's story as she recounted her stormy voyage to Magistrate McKean. Her marriage craft, she said, had not been truly sedworthy, and she wanted .an order for separation, maintenance and eriin rdianship of their one,, little' lifeboat; '■.'-.. '■; / * Her baby was born lagt January, .and it was chiefly her husband's ill -ti-eatr ment, during the period, closely prior to th,e' ; , happy event, that had driven her tp finally desert her pqst. Much, as she .had resented, his.behaviour. Arthur had, she .affirmed, assorted his "rights as -a husband" m a manner guaranteed to' entangle any ( love-knot, ' V. "Once, when I was shivering with the cold, he took the hot- water bottle from my bed; threw it put of the window, and pujied the clothes down. 1 '; That, she said, he claimed to be one of his Vhusband's rights." ' . ' Others'!— Yes, aplenty. Edna was forced, even when she was m a certain state of health,' to . get ,ud at six a.ni. ■■and cook Arthur's breakfast. ■ " . . 'Slapping his. wife's face also ap.pealed tb young Arthur as a i ond husband's privilege, it was said. Even as ■lnte' as three weeks before the birth of thp child, Jackson had exercised this, "right,'* with a. further. threat that he would "put his fist through . her face.'? Then the use of "coarse, ..vulgar language," had been likewise' categbried, nn'd once, when his wife was late with the tea, he "pulled and twisted her nose," wlthVa similar claim of authority. ■ '■■ ■■■■..'•■■ -■ ■•■-.;• "Once, when we were making coffee," continued the complainant, "and because I. forgot the sugar, he threw a lemon at my face m his violent, temper." Added to Arthur's eccentric list of marital liberties, came his monopoly of the breadTbih — Edna having once j found the cupboard .bare after Arthur had broken his own fast and taken his departure with his lunch tucked under his arm. ' :

Baby wanted singlets, but dad wanted a bike; baby wanted a cot, but dad — well, dada, didn't seem, to ca!re, and thought the two . shillings he at one time left ..with his wife, 'quite an adequate sum for her to carry on with. Arthur Jackson,' a tall, fresh-eom-plexioned youth, took the box to deny the greater' part of the" complainant's story. ' . . „; "My wife doesn't want to live with me because I don't get enough money," he told the S.M. when intimating that his wages 'as a painter averaged about v £ 4/8/- per week. Referring to the water-bag incident, Arthur's version was that the night was warm, and he saw no reason, for a "hot-water bag. I just took the bag and. threw 'it out of the window and hopped into ' bed' myself," he said simply. ! . The lemon-shying allega-tion was merely a : "joke," just part of a little "horse.- play" to which he and his wife were accustomed. ■ "I used to stay m every night," he told the court plaintively — "We were always m bed by 8.30 or 9 o'clock. I usecl to. help do the washing, wash the .floor, help with the) dishes, and when I could afford it r take my wife to the, pictures." , • The complaints about the baby's singlets, were unfounded. ■ The child was well off for such clothing. On the other 'hand, he admitted using certain foui.J.phrases , to his wife, but she also, he 'asserted, wets subject to angry but;bursts,/in which ,. she would refer' to defendant's parents m anything but favorable terms, his father being referred to sometimes as ''low-down pig." Mrs. Gearhey, bwjier of the flat at Queen Mary Avenue, Epaom, where the youngr couple had -. been living: for eleven months, stated that she occupied a portion ;of the house, and had never heard or seen anything to disturb her impression that the Jackeons were ai most affectionate young couple. ; .Had she suspected that there was any '-ill- treatment' going on, or any such breach as the evidence . alleged, she would have sought other tenants. "You have helped me considerably," remarked the S.M. to the last witness, m giving his opinion that the husband was a clean-living, decent young fel-'lo\ir.'-;V- : '• .•'■'"'.' '■ '■• : ■•'■•'■ ; '.'."-' ..•'.'•' ■''.' The, firmer ,was refused*