NO WONDERLAND FOR ALICE CAMERON!

NZ Truth, Issue 1186, 23 August 1928, Page 5

NO WONDERLAND FOR ALICE CAMERON!

Divorce Judge Hears of Kitchen Bombardment With Hot Sausages and Scalding Tea "I WAS A NERVOUS WRECK~WHEN I LEFT MY HUSBAND" i. . . ■ .■..»■'■■ "" I „„„'■„ „„„„„„„ mumim iiiiitm uiiiiiuiiiiiit miniiiiiiiiiiii mluimmim iniiiiiiiniii iiiiiiiiiiuiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiuiimiiiiuiiuiiiiiimiiillliiiniimiiiiniiii mill jiiiiitmtii iiiiiiiiiiHiimiimi niiiiiitiiinnmiinitini niiiiinimiiiiii miiiiiiiii imntiiiiiit iiiiiniimii-iiiiiitiiiittmiiiifimimiiiiiiiri iimiiimnimm miiiiiiiiinnmiiimiiimimiimis I (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) - * . i I it Alice May Cameron s story is true, then her husband, Peter, has spent most of his married life seeking inspiration for I | .- . cave-man tactics from the business end of a bottle — not a milk bottle, either I '■'■■■ \ I Peter s method of demonstrating his affection for Alice, so she says, was to hand out short-arm jabs to her chin, , occasionally I I Varying this treatment with uppercuts, straight lefts and rights to either optic — or whatever portion of her features seemed con- j j venient at the time— just' as the fancy took him. She also declared that he would sometimes caress her with the kitchen poker; j j Alice told Judge Blair that she became tired of this abysmally brutal devotion— her husband was not particular where he struck j § her or what weapon he employed. ' ■ '-. ! 7tiiruniitfiiiiti>nifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiitifi>iiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiitiiiitiiiiiiiiiifiiuHtiiiiiiiitiriiititiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiniitniitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitititaiiiiiiriiiiititiiitiii>ii)irtiiiititiiiiiiiiMtifiiiiiitiiiMiiiirtiiiiii)tiv iiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|)liiiiiiiimiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiniiiii"> tniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiriiiiiiliiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiii iiitmus

DETER ...' McFARLANE .CAMERON, 1 respondent m divorce proceedings brought by- his wife, Alice, on the ground of wilful desertion, did not put m an appearance. ' . His counsel, Lawyer Conlan, advised the court that his client was laid up with lumbago and could not possibly attend. . ■ When an adjournment was mooted, Lawyer Schramm, on behalf .-., 0f .the wife, remarked that Cameron "had apparently contracted the trouble the day before the case. Lawyer Conlan made it clear to his honor that he knew practically nothing about the proceedings and could only be guided by what he would hear m the way of evidence. The day Alice took Peter for better or worse was May 22, 1912, at Levin. Before taking the plunge, her name was Denton. . .. •, ' A short, buxom, country type, with eyes and facial expression reflecting strongly that she had lived by no means a placid and, care-free existence, she told Judge Blair a simple— but, nevertheless, illuminating— story of her life as Peter Camerori^s wife. The first few»years after she "^hanged her name were — :well, "things W;ere,not so bad." ' . • ■ . 1 ' As her narrative continued, it seemed that her husband very early m their married life had developed the pernicious habit of making alcohol a bosom companion, ;' '■ To such an extent did he bury .'his nose m the froth of long beers that it became necessary ito have him prohibited. Later, another prohibition order was taken out against.him. One of these orders he had arrangec himself, to avoid dismissal from the employ of the Levin Borough Council. Alice told the court therej were , five children of the marriage and one child of which her husband was the stepfather. Though he was earning £20 per month as an employee of the Levin Borough Council, he never paid her any of this money. .. ' The whole of this amount was spent m drink and petitioner had to go out to work in^ order to feed and clothe herself and* the children.

Sometimes Sober

, "While. I was^ still living with my husband at Levin," continued Mrs. Cameron, VI went oqt washing, scrubbing, sewing and doing other work m order ,to - live." She had also to seek help from charitable organizations; During: this time, , when her husband was seldom sober, she had to take . the three youngest children out with her when she went to work. Her husband had tried to. smash up her machine with an axe. "He threw it out the back door," she added. Mrs. Catoeron said she had made innumerable complaints to the police and on many occasions a. constable would have, to visit the house and compel her husband to allow the children and herself to enter. . '1 had ' to leave him on two occasions," continued petitioner, "because of the way he carried on. He came and bogged me to go back to him. I did ... .. and he was just as bad as ever. "i had £400 of my own monoy when l>,i married my husband. He got it all out of me one way and ; another." She went on to say that her husband had only paid the medical and nursing expenses m respect of the birth of one of her children. ■' • ' There were times when he was sober, however. "He never had the- money to get drunk all the time," was his wife's explanation. / Another ground for complaint against him was his habit of bringing home undesirable nien. "They brought whisky and demijohns of beer to my house," Alice announced, "and I asked the police to put a stop to it." Detailing how she had put one of her husband's drinking companions out ol 1 the house, Mrs. Cameron said: "I got my arm nearly broken with a poker — my husband struck me with it because of what I did." Peter; it appeared, did not treat his own children so badly, but according to his wife he used to "hammer" his stepson and frequently put him out -of the house at night.

To ensure that the boy would not gain entrance, his practice was to nail up the windows and lock all the doors. "I was a nervous wreck when I left my husband m 1922," petitioner went on to say - One day her husband had thrown a pot full of hot tea over her. The pot missed its mark, but the hot tea scaldEd her. Another gentlemanly action of Peter Cameron's was kneeling on his wife's chest and gripping her by the throat, so she said. She demonstrated with her ' own clenched fist how her husband had jabbed her under the chin, driving her lip into her teeth; also, he had kicked her on the chin, his boot leaving a mark which she still carried. Black eyes and bruises on her body soon became commonplace so far as frequency was concerned. • His Honor: "What was it finally mduced you to leave him? What was the last straw?" a . Petitioner: "It was his action m bringlng home those dirty, low mens I 11l 11 Mttlli tM 11111 Itt Ml M Itlli M irill MIII [f IIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIII ]1 ] 1111111 ri 11111111111. I 1

felt that if I stayed there much longer I would go mad." She added that she had taken the you child and her eldest son with fte T r when s*ie eft th f h °"*e \ , Lawyer Conlan asked MrsX Cameron if she had not applied for a separation order about nine years ago, when-her application had been dismissed by the magistrate. The reply was that this was correct, but petitioner remarked that she could not understand why her application had Dee" turned down, It was also true that she had written to her husband m 1920 from Feildlng, asking him to take her back, She had returned to him, but his conduct was just as bad as ever, Counsel: Were you not constantly at him to move away from the district? r~ NoDo you know a man named Mc-G-losky?—-Yes, he was one of the men whom my husband brought to the house. . "Is it true that on one-occasion your husband found you in.MeGlosky's arms?" 11 M1! 11111 ITI M M Orf ■ 11TIM11111M11 ]rI) 1 f rll 11M rI [ 1111 (1111M1111111M11MIIIJI1^ »1 Itll IMIIITMIIIt

Alice gave this an indignant denial, [t was not true that she was friendly i with this man. \ .... 1 Her husband, used to bring these men to the', home, and, though, she had i spoken to this man, . she i knew what he ; was and would have • nothing to do, with him. i "He is. the scum of the village!" exclaimed Mrs. Cameron, scornfully. , Her explanation of her husband's al- [ legations against her m regard to Mci Glosky was that, he was jealous of her. -When he brought . these "undei sirables" to .the house, if - she even , looked at any "of them, he would get angry with her. . , ■ i ■ Petitioner did not think it was due ' to. her husband's jealousy over these - men that he was violent towards her. . His drinking habits and his violence originated long, before he brought men to the house. He was often .violent towards her when he was sober. ! Alice Informed counsel that her husband had not -properly maintained his children after they had been put into a home. . He had. paid, some maintenance, but as he owed a considerable amount, the woman with whom the children were boarded ; put compelled him to work for her m order to; liquidate the debt. Petitioner had kept all her children m clothes after her departure from her husband's house. When she left him, she went to live with her brother at Mahgataparu, near Morrinsville. ; . • Herbert " Lloyd Denton, petitioner's eldest son, made no secret of the fact that Peter Cameron's stock stood, with him, a long way below par. "He used to come home three nights a week - drunk," was Herbert's candid contribution. The . youthful witness threw another sidelight on Cameron's allegedly peculiar ideas of affection and matrimonial discipline. For • instance, he told' of an incident with a frying-pan. Cameron, according to His account, was not fussy whether the meal being prepared foe him went down his neck or found a refuge on the kitchen ceiling— that portion of it which missed his wife m transit. ' ■•■■'. One night, so Herbert alleged, his

Storm In Teapot

stepfather grabbed a- pan off ithe stove and threw it. at^T his mother. "He threw the pan— and with the hot sausages m: it,: too," exclaimed witness. "He got wild arid jus. picked up .the pan and threw; it." Herbert' remembered the time his stepfather hurled a pot of boiling tea at his- mother; though the pot missed her, the tea did . oot. A- liberal quantity of it struck the .ceiling. 1 ; 77;-.:' \y Summed 7. up, the boy|s evidence was that his - stepfather^ would grab; anything, on hand arid proceed to chastise his wife with ityyT Counsel : ."H.ow : did ':, he treat . you ?"~"J ust about the same as mother; always kicking me' .-'out and hammering, me.." ;He did not, like his stepfather, he added. Percy-George .Denton, brother, of ; the petitioner, corroborated certain of the eviderice In respect to respondent's drinking habits and' ill-treatment of his wife. He told of a conversation he had with a bank mariager ' concerning a- sum of money left ' m trust- for Mrs. Cameron until' she reached the age of twenty-one. .7 .When spoken, to regarding the drawing of this money by his sister.the bank official had told witness • that if he took his advice hewould leave it m trust m the bank, because Cameron couU not then "get .hold of it.-T Addressing his; honor, Lawyer Cdnlan said he was bound to admit that the evidence against respondent was strong. - -„ •■■' : '. 'v; '< ; "I cannot make ' an , answer at ■ present,", he continued, "arid' I do not know whether Cameron can effectively : answer the allegations at .'all. y "All I can say is that he is not well and cannot be present. I. ask for the case to be adjourned." T Lawyer Gonlah added that his client had wired. him, saying he had lumbago and could notattend^ In reply to a -telegram from his : counsel, "Cameron wired. "Not fit to leave ;T do your 'best.'' T 7 His honor agreed ■'-. to adjourn the proceedings. : " ' *■■ : - '."-''■"' > ,