WHEN LILY BLOOMED IN LEGAL SOIL

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

WHEN LILY BLOOMED IN LEGAL SOIL

Versatile Hubby ■ ■ - Si

Even A Man Who Travels A Great Deal Can Go Too Far From The Realm of Domestic Obligations

. ■. , *• JUDGE PREFERS WIFE'S STORY OF DESERTION ■' : • ~~" •' ' - . (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) ' . . Absence, said the old, old song, makes the heart grow fonder, but he who inspired that melodramatic loneliness could never have been a railway shunter, hotel proprietor, farmer, taxi-driver, mail T 77 i 7 ii r m ■■■/**■■■ . !"•■■' ri :"- I i I 1 17 contractor, boarding-house keeper and setter of 'real estate. But Larneme tLrnest Koulston has been all , Vr, ri.r i ? t< At ,»> 1 l 1 r ,1 , • 7. i« >,I T.l these. His song of life has been Absent —and by an order of the court severing his ties with Lily n i . ,7 . .77 .77 ' i. V . >,11 ; " • ■ Koulston this week, he will continue to enjoy marital absence. •.•■■-.• •■■'.■•• „ • " ' • , . —. ; — l- ——© : —r — -©-: : —-——— '■ ' '. ' —— :—^Q ■ •; " i —;

WHEN Carnegie changed his method of livelihood, it more often than not meant a residential change for he was unlike his financially notorious namesake m being able to entice wealth from the winds. Eighteen years have rolled by since they first hitched up their connubial wagon to the twinkling star of practicality. And now at last a judge of the Supreme Court has perforce cut the harness. . In Wellington this week, before Mr. Justice. Smith, Roulston petitioned for a divorce on .the ground of his wife's desertion. - Roulston's wife .objected to being called a matrimonial deserter, and cross-petitioned for a divorce on the same identical grounds — desertion. Down to legal tin-tacks, It was a question whether he or she was to take the heavyweight freedom title. Roulston, m answer to the crosspetition, absolutely denied deserting hi 3 wife and unfolded the story of his married life. . On the first day of June, 1910, Roulston married the subject of his present estrangement, but if the new season brought with it the climatic springtime of love, their happiness, m a reverse

turn, withered and died. before it had fully bl'oßßomed. . . From Christchurch, where the cathedral tolled his bell of , hope beginning, he took his fair Lily to Rajcala. where he was employed as a shunter on the railway. He was obliged to work two nights a week there and had two days free, engaging himself with farming during these, periods. : Everything went along awimmingly until his wife complained about his being away at nights. From then on, petitioner alleged, started a long list of Ins and outs. He was transferred to Longburn, but eventually resigned' from the railways and took an unlicensed hotel at Grovetown. . ' The venture there * was short-lived for he left and came to Wellington where he took a shop. His wife complained about this so he sold the business and went out to Trentham and ran a' car. That was during the early part of 1915; , • • Immediately afterwards, Carnegie, for reasons best known to himself, went over to the West Coast to engage m farming, but- bobbed up again at Featherston m 191£ as a taxi-driver. Here It. was he was offered a position as mail contractor from Eketahuna to Pongaroa. "I accepted it," said Carnegie, "and opened a boardinghouse and shop m connection with it." The wife used to help m the .shop and then she complained of being ill, saying regularly that she had a nervous breakdown. . '. . At Pahiatua she saw a doctor whom, ;he asserted, advised his wife to 'take a trip away. Upon that advice she went to Masterton.

By mutual agreement shie returned to Pahiatua, where he met and asked her to return with him, but she refused, saying:- "I don't like the place, i I don't like the people and I won't go back. You had better shift your business out of there." Roulston told his wife that he couldn't leave because of the Government contract. This conversation, he said, took place either at the car-side or at the rooms wfyere he visited her. He supplied her with certain money, and his driver also gave ', her some m Pahiatua. The next turn m fortune's wheel saw Lily '.Roulston taking action against her ". husband m Pajmerstbn North for maintenance, but the parties came ''. to some mutual arrangement whereby h$ paid her £1 a week. This sum he paid intermittently. Carnegie left Pongaroa because he could not make a do of it, and came ■ iiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiuniiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiiimmiiiiimiiiiiimiiiiimiiiimiiiiiiifiiiiii

1 to Wellington, There, m the latter part of 1925, he met his wife. Their 1 marital relations had ceased "ever since : she first .left Pongaroa. "About March, 1926," went on petitioner, "I brought the two boys to i Wellington and took a house at. iLyall * Bay. My wife knew I was there,- and . under an arrangement, I regularly sent the children to her." • ; : i One Saturday I missed sending them and, my wife attacked me. . With. a. broom. '-'I had a man "there at the time. My wife Avanted ' to come back, but I told her I didn't want' her. back." : ■ Lawyer, F. W. Ongley, who appeared for petitioner, placed a friend of Carnegie's m the- witness-box, who testified to haviiTg lived with Roulston 'at Pongaroa about the time his Lily went away. .' ' > ■ , ;.' '.•■.. ', ' '-. ■:, ■ Under cross-exkmination, Roulston admitted, that ' -his wife was lying ill m a bbarding-house m ViviAn Street, Wellington, m 1924. ■■•The boardinghousekeeper sent for him, "and I went," added Roulston. "She (his wife) asked me if I would take her back." , , . Lawyer Ongley: What was your reply?_l sa ici I wouldn't discuss the matter an it was hopeless to talk about it. I gave her £5 and left. . Roulston was then living m lodgings elsewhere, : ; .

• Lily Roulston, with the . bloom of youth still on her cheeks, despite her apparently unhappy marital existence, told the court through her legal adviser, Lawyer A. B. Sievjvright, of the many ups and clowns she had experienced at the hands of her husband. She emphatically denied' having deserted' him and said, that after her ill-health, her husband had no further time for her. It was at Pongaroa when she gave bicth to a child on July 25, 1919. She also had a relapse and drifted, into a nervous, run-down state. The doctor ordered her away for a holiday and her husband agreed to<her going. He accompanied her to Masr terton, where she stayed with her sister. She stayed there some time—^a year or two. While there the baby died. Her husband wrote and told her, but that was the( only letter he ever wrote. • ' '■' ' iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiin

"My husband came to Masterton two or throe times to see me," .said Lily, ''and I begged him to take me back. He said 'no,' he did not want me back. I made the first request about Christmas, 1919. He used to bririg the children occasionally, to see me." .After leaving her sister's place, Mrs. Roulston said she went to Pahiatua find the:-e- secured' light 'work.' "I went there to keep m touch -with him and the children and to, .see if I could get ■brick to.him."^ •'■;•'•' Lawyer Sievwright: Did you return to Pongaroa ?-— He refused to let me. :••. ' £>id he give any reason for this l'efusal?—The: only reason was that he didn't want me. .Because of. his re-. fuHal fpr me to return 'l took a bad turn. , Nothing : ! else caused it. . Her luisbancl saw^ her, she added, when she was very bad and sent for her sister m M&s.tertori, who' took her bac ; k to her own home. "I was there for a year or so on this occasion; "When I asked him if I could return, he always said: 'I .don't, want you back." ' .." ' ' . . •Witness had come on to Wellington after that and secured employment, later going down- to another sister m Christchurch. :She was there from 'August, 1923, until New Year, 1924. . . , • Since .that date Mrs. ; Roulston

? , said she had been merely ekeing out a bare existence in 'Wellington , by doing odd jobs by Way of sewing, and housework. ! When m Masterton on the first occasion, her husband, had given her a little money m dribs and drabs, but later she received nothing at all. Accordingrly she took maintenance proceedings against him — at Palmerston North to avoid the publicity m Masterton. '"_ ' Carnegie attended at court, but the case was not heard because he, consented to an order for 30/- a week. He kep.t it up only : more or. less and. lately ! he had. paid only £1 a week. . . '.Referring to the. incident at Lyall Bay, Mrs. Roulston said her husband would not let her inside the house. ; He. locked her m an oiit-house and got his eldest son »to put her oft! the place ',' by force. .'-.'.. ! . • Lawyer Sievwright: Do you know of any reason why he did not want you to come inside? — Yes. I was pretty sure he had someone else inside. Mrs. Christina ' Kennedy, called by Lawyer Sievwright, said she had known Mrs. Roulston since 1916, when she was living m a home with her husband .at Featherston. The family life of. the parties seemed quite normal Woman Believed and happy. Mrs. Roulston was a good wife and mother. The parties had left for Pongaroa and she did not see . Mrs. Roulston again until January, 1920, when she was m Masterton. "I had . previously seen Roulston," said witness, "and he told me his wife had' been very ill and that the doctor had ordered her away for a holiday. "He suggested that I take her to my place. She was at my place for six weeks. During that time Roulston did not cdme to see'his wife." So far as -witness knew, Mrs. Roulston was always ready to return to her husband. " : After reviewing Roulston's evidence, his honpr said. he was forced to' believe the wife's story — that he had declined to take her back. ■ ' , ' • ■' "He admits he Ranted a divorce and she didn't," added his honor. "In my opinion the case is one of constructive desertion of the wife by. the husband.' 1 "I gather from the evidence that the husband formed the intention m 1923 of bringing cohabitation to an end." His honor held that reasonable maintenance had not been paid and that the wife had shown that she wished to return to her husband. Although the wife had asked for maintenance" at Palmerston North, she had not asked for a separation at .the same time. His honor dismissed the husband's petition, but granted the wife a decree nist on her^cross-petition, to be moved absolute m three months. Interim custody of the children would g6 to the husband pending further order of the court. . •