TECHNICALLY! Law and Theoretical Daddy of Three

NZ Truth, Issue 1183, 2 August 1928, Page 7

TECHNICALLY ! Law and Theoretical Daddy of Three

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Dunedin Rep.) Edward Harrison has apparently received the worst of the running m the matrimonial stakes. A FTER he did his stuff for King arid ** country, he took unto himself a wife, whose goods and chattels included two bouncing girls. This was over nine years ago. But before the field had settled down, Harrison's spouse ran off at the first jump two months after they did the , love, honor and obey preliminaries. [ She took her two children with her. I "Ten months after she left me, another child was born," Harrison told Magistrate Bundle at Dunedin last week when the police brought an ac--1 tion against him for a maintenance order m respect of his three children, since committed to the State. According to Harrison's story, matrimony is no primrose path, and he seems to, have had his particular pathway strewn with thorns. BY THE WAY Three years after his wife left him, she instituted divorce , proceedings on the grounds of constructive desertioli, her allegation being that Harrison's conduct had forced her to leave him. Lawyer Alf. Hanlon, who jockeyed for Harrison, said the Salvation Army authorities, who had interested themselves m the wife's case, had implored Harrison to allow his wife to obtain her divorce on the condition that no further claim would be made for maintenance and that no costs would be asked for. , In the intervening six years, nothing was heard of Mrs. Harrison m the way of demands for maintenance, but m January of this year her three children fell into the hands of the State as their mother could not support them. . Following a prolonged period of sickness, said counsel, she had now secured employment m a hotel m St. Andrews, in' South Canterbury. "This man fell m, your worship," observed counsel. "He married a • bad lot. She kicked over the traces and cleared out and ten months later had another child." Harrison claimed that as he was not the father of any of the children, and this was not disputed m court, it was a bit hard on him having to pay towards their maintenance, especially after the promise made to him. when he did not oppose his wife's divorce. • But the law says that technically he is the father, and m future Harrison will have to contribute 10/- weekly from the £4/8/- he -gets for helping to make soap m McLeod's soapworks m Dunedin. He won't be forever blowing bubbles at this rate,