WHEN WIFE CAME BACK

NZ Truth, Issue 1179, 5 July 1928, Page 3

WHEN WIFE CAME BACK

Found /Life With Swatton Hardiy An Earthly Paradise (Prom "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) Thirty years ago Ernest Oliver and Edith Clara Swatton decided to embark on Life's journey together.*

BUT who can foretell what lies ahead on the road of matrimony? ' Ernest and Edith, it seems, af ter . a fairly bumpy trip, finally traversed a pot-hole Tv-hieh has landed them before a magistrate m the Auckland Maintenance Court. On the grounds of cruelty and failing to niaitttaih, Mrs. Swatton engaged the services of Lawyer Les. Adams to place her application for separation and maintenance before Magistrate Hunt. Ernest Swatton, at the side of Lawyer Singer, opposed the separation clause of the proceedings, but intimated agreehient to paying his wife £ 1 a week. "He has an ungovernable temper and has been cruel tome," stated the little woman when speaking from the wit-ness-box. "Eleven years ago^he threw a pumpkin at me which weighed six. pounds." Lawyer Singer: "But that's . only a friendly action! "—"ls it! .. . . and how

your trip to the Old Country?"— "My boys." To the bench, witness admitted that her husband had not come near her to make a disturbance since she left him six months *a£o and took a flat with her daughter. But she had met him m Queen Street and he had threatened to come to her place and "kick up a '^——. of a row." It was on account of this threat and her general fear of him that she wished for a separation order. Asked by the bench if she desired subsequently to sue for divorce, complainant emphatically opposed such a suggestion. ■'■■.', „ , She had, she said, been told to sling her hook" and very dutifully complied with her husband's wish, aided, no doubt, by an alleged threat of dire consequences. ;■'• . A 21-year-old daughter corroborated her mother's evidence arid m. a flood of tears' told the court she. had neVe'l* had a pleasant home, ' dwihg to her

would you like it?" - • ■■ i ■. g At^°St rr , 7 ».> S «” feSMi^'U? Husband s Temper Sfc&gSgthe wife continued. ■...■■-...■.- his ? Jather s . be-

And .when I remonstrated he swore .at me. He woiiid go mad m his filthy tempers »» '*, ''And tils filthy boots!" volunteered 7 defending counsel. ''He would, throw the beds about and pull the curtains down m his spite. Once he cut -down £111 my currant bushes and aspidastras palms—^ciit them right down to the ground!" ,' Magistrate Hunt: 7"lt' might, be just as well to dut them dot^n; they never come to anything In this country." Asked by hei* counsel whether her husband was addicted to alcoholic outbursts, Mrs. Swatton. replied that he was not what could be called ari "habitual inebriate",; sometimes he went for a week or two without touching drink. - - 7 „ "He accused me of fooling about with, my sister's husband, and is always insulting me about it. I cannot go out but that he accuses me, of going with .other men. "Many a time he has threiatened to do for me, the last time being since I returned from a trip to England.;" 'Magistrate Hunti "Who! paid for

"His language," said the- son, "was bad T enough for a man to listen to— much less a woman." "Without calling the defendant, Lawyer Siriger contisnded that there waS absolutely ho obeksio'n for a separatiori oi'der. The parties had lived happily right up to the time' the wife returned from an eighteen months' trip to the Old 'Country, T ' ' ' . It was counsel's contention that after the English holiday, -"she could not knuckle down to New Zealand life again." Lawyer Adams asserted that the huSband had not been consistent with his maintenance of the honie. In further discussion regarding the payment of £,1 a week offered by de.fendant, counsel insisted, that it. be made payable to the court per medium of an order. 7 . It was finally agreed upon by -consent that an order be, made for 20/- a week. ■'..-. '*'■ : If at any time Swatton annoys or molests his wife, the. matter of separa 7 tion will be reyiew'ed;7 m .other words, the case is adjourned, sine die.' ; 7- 7 ' ;