THEY STOPPED, LOOKED AND LISTENED!

NZ Truth, Issue 1176, 14 June 1928, Page 7

THEY STOPPED, LOOKED AND LISTENED!

Sunnex Was A Railway Official On Transfer, But He Certainly Knew Where He Got Off THE LIGHTS WERE NOT^GAINST HIM THIS TIME -iiimiiiiiiminiiiininiuwimitiriiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiMiMiniiiiiiiinniiitiimMiiiitniiiiinininiiiiiiiniiiimiinwiiniiiiimiimiimiiHiiniiiiiiitiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiimiiiitininmi^

1 1 . (From "N;Z. Truth's" Napier Representative.) jjf H WHY THE BOX-OFFICE RUSH, THOUGH ? This was no question of membership of exclusive dubs. Merely || SI a divorce in sunny Napier — where the Kewpie Clubs come from— yet a magnetic draw, almost unprecedented in the little \\ II city of wonderful nonsense. Has father joined? . . . But ssh: Not for the proletariat are the intimate details of the \\ II little affair that passed off successfully in the Napier Divorce Court last week |I |1 No defence was offered when Thomas Alfred Sunnex asked for the legal undoing of what had been done up Hi the J| 11 matter of matrimonial \not4yingin 1921 . And, there being no defence, the silence that is proverbially, and sometimes || II literally, golden, and the identical silence that is not infrequently allied to consent, was taken for granted. g| ll Thus, when the learned judge cried enough, metaphorically pulling down the judicial blind on what might yet have J If been said, Thomas Alfred Sunnex got what he wanted, even to a little mercenary balm from- " the other man," Thomas | II GDowd, whose attentions to Sunnex's wife gave him the booby prize-— and cost him £250; I 2? . n ,,. n , R ,.,,,,,,,, 1 ,,,,,,,.,,,,M,i,iimi,i t iiiiiii ti.iui.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiimtiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiimtn mil iiitrn'i'iii inn uiMiiiiiintiiiiiiiMiHiniiriiiiiiiniunniiniDniiiimiiKiniuinntßruiiiiiiimi inniiitimnni n iiiniiin ititimiiiiiii iiiiiiiiniiiiii iimimmimitimimimimimit miiuiniiiannmimiuuiwiims iMm"nmMui™mmnimi!l'i'i"liii'^ iliniliiiiii mmmimnm u milimimmmmimiii i itiiiiiiiiiniliririniiiiiiiunirtiticiiriiinilililiiirMiniilllilltlliniiimiriniiiluiitrtitlni iitliiiiiMiuilliiiiiiiiiiririiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirniiiiiiiiiiiilttMiiiiiiitiiiiiiiininin miimimmffiimnniiiimii— nmun

T ET'S tell you just a little about this Li business. Thomas Alfred Sunnex is a clerk in the employ of the New Zealand Railway Department. And when he asked for a dissolution of his marriage with Ada Florence Sunnex on the ground of misconduct, and cited Thomas O'Dowd, of Masterton, as co-respondent, the Napier Divorce Court happened to be a popular rendezvous, especially as petitioner claimed £250 as damages against the corespondent. , Beins undefended, of course, the ease did not take very long, merely long enough to establish the misconduct between the respondent and the man from Masterton. That was all. And his honor broke off the story by intimating that- he had. heard enough. The jury awarded the petitioner full damages and the court granted the decree nisi, to be moved absolute in three months. In putting the case for the petitioner to judge and jury last week, Lawyer H. B. Lusk mentioned that the Idea of damages was not as a question of punishment, but an assessment which the jury could. make regarding the injury Sunnex had suffered as a result of what had occurred. Sunnex and his wife had been very happily, married and the respondent admittedly was a good mother to the. children. . . It was only within the last three weeks -of their living together that petitioner had detected a coolness in his wife, who began to neglect matters in the home.

He asked her if she. had been to bid adieu to her friend in Faraday Street and received an affirmative answer. Petitioner then decided to take her uaclc to the place in Carnell Street. Outside this house was a man named Kennalls attending to a motor-car. Sunnex approached this 'gentleman, asking him why his wife had been in the house two 'hours. Rennalls replied that so far as he was concerned "everything was all right," but another man had been inside. , I Sunnex took his wife home and she was annoyed at being . "made a fool of in front of others." Threatening to leave him then, he informed her that if she went, she would have to stay away altogether.

However, she 1 insisted. on , up some of:her belongings into a suitcase and -left the house,;. givno indication of where she- was going. '_ ■•■■•■ : . > About six o'clock, she returned and wanted petitioner, to- go rbund to Rennalls' house, 'but he refused. . Still later, O 'Do wd, Rennalls and respondent came round to his . house, when petitioner, questioned O'Dowd, asking him, unavailirigly for an. explanation. . Petitioner ordered O'Dowd out of the house. $ At this, respondent left also, intimating that- she was going to etay at the Caledonian Hotel. . , The- following morning, petitioner

started investigating and found that his wife had not registered on the books of the Caledonian Hotel. Proceeding with this intelligence, Sunnex found his way to Rennalls 1 place, but that gentleman did not know Where Mrs. Sunnex was. At ten o'clock that night, Rennalls arrived at petitioner's place with the information that Ada Sunnex and O'Dowd were at his house. He was a little concerned about it. At that time, petitioner was paoking up his furniture in preparation for his transfer and was "being helped by a man named Seal. They set out then for Rennalls' house In Carnell Street and on arrival there, they discovered respondent and O'Dowd in a very compromising position, clad only in the flimsiest and scantiest of raiment. Petitioner then went into another room, the discovered couple folio-wing. Questioned in thia other room, both Mrs. Sunnex and O'Dowd admitted having committed misconduct, even offering to sign a confession. It was at this stage, however, that Rennalls decided to order the guilty couple out of the house. Sunnex then went to see O'Dowd's brother in Hastings, but that gentleman, who is in the legal profession, refused to have anything to do with the case. However, in spite of all that had happened, petitioner told the jury that he was prepared to take his wife back even then, but O'Dowd would not allow her to go. The couple were now living together.