"STICKS AND STONES-"

NZ Truth, Issue 1193, 11 October 1928, Page 10

"STICKS AND STONES-"

Donnelly's Biffs and Bickerings Ended For All

(From "N.Zi Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) Looking, m perspective over the married life of Lucy Frances Donnelly and her husband, James Donnelly, there arise the words of Pope: To err is human; to forgive, dioine," for they are wholly applicable to the wife's forbearing attitude towards her husband. I

fNONNELLY is a man of rather fiery! L) temper, and his outbursts of rage during the thirteen years of their married life caused his wife much stress of mind and body. Three times she left him, and three times, m answer to hie appeal, she returned and tried to start off afresh with the man of her OhOice. Once, m 1917, she issued proceedings against him for separation and maintenance on the grounds of persistent cruelty and drunkenness, but at. the last moment the case did not oome up for hearing, and five months afterwards Donnelly left the country as a seaman on the Wairuna, That was the laßt Lucy saw of her husband for over two and a-half years, for the ship' was captured and Donnelly found himself a prisoner of war iin Germany. When, finally, he returned to New Zealand his wife was down at the wharf to meet him and. jointly they took up the broken threads of their lives. The trials, tribulations, and mlseries through which he had passed, his wife looked upon m the nature of a crucible for the cleansing of his fiery soul and she was prepared to forget the past. For nearly eight years they have journeyed along togetheiy but once again has come the parting of the ways, this time definitely, for last week m the Wellington Maintenance Court, Magistrate Salmon granted Lucy Donnelly her plea for legal separation from the man who had so often abused his many chances. During the period of hlB defence, James Donnelly stoutly denied all knowledge of any earlier^ issue of * writ of separation against hlmj nor had there been any threat of suoh proceedings. ', • .• But phantom-like, out of the past, rose the necessary proof, m the form of old court records, to class him as a liar and a perjurer. So supremely confldent was he that the past had buried its dead he relied solely on his own

said her husband's language towards her was anything but polite. He used to call her all the filthy names he could lay his tongue to. Lawyer Sievwright: There was no foundation m fact for his insinuations? —No, he knew I never went out with anyone else. '■ The boarder, McDonald, eaid that prior to the recent Friday night acene he had no idea that there was any trouble between man and wife. Explaining the affair he said Donnelly and he had four beers on the way home. • ; . He knocked at the door for a Joke and complainant jokingly replied: "Go to ."" He had then gone into the bathroom and heard the start of the rumpus from there. When he came out to separate the pair Mrs. Donnelly was on the couch with James striking her. Hubby had finished off the proceedings by orderi ng his wife out of the house. Defendant had asked witness to stay on j n the house until the following Monday. • Did" Donnelly never mention anything to you about your being too attentive to his wife or she to you?— He never said anything m his life. Lawyer Leicester, for his client, made a complete denial of the charge of persi stent cruelty, but there was no concealment of the fact that on the Frlday night, "to use a colloquialism, Donnelly did give his wife a hiding." So far as main tenance was concerned defendant had been more or IeBH a model husband. When James stepped into the box he maintained his married life had been quite a happy one! You left your allotment with a Mrs. Duncan. Why was that?—My wife was away on the West. Coast at the time. .1 owed Mrs. Duncan a debt and after it was extracted the balance, of, the money was to be banked. I collected it after I came back, James admitted that there was a separation of some five or six weeks'

word to'throw dust m the eyes of the court. , When Lawyer A. B. Sievwright, who - appeared for the

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duration about 7 or. 8 years ago. Dealing with the trouble that had separated him from his wife, James said

wife, ask.cd permis- .. ■• sion of the bench to turn up the old records, after a little delay, the old withering blast of righteous, wrath from Magistrate Salmon, who said he had a good mind to issue a prosecution f°S6PS£S stout denials and vaunted desires to have his wife back with him once again went for naught and his defence crumpled like > a pack of ■ carda, S^SSST"' 0" " It cannot be said of Donnelly, though, that he failed to maintain his wife. Jn her evidence from the wit-ness-box, Luoy said he regularly paia her £9 or £10 a fortnight, but nearly every Friday night he used to cut up rusty and abuse her, sometimes taking hl Hubbywas er m the permanent employ of the Wellington Harbor Board, a job he had held down for^some ' eight years. Their married life had not been happy: not from the very start " The trouble was mostly caused by his drinking and then abusing her. him, but the case was never proceeded with. . ■ 'On another occasion she had left him because he had tried to force an megitimate child upon her and she refused to accept it. Further detailing this event, Lucy said she had. f in herjiand 'at the time and let fiy,at/ames.with it r famny'cifd" he^lcKadordeS : her away for a fortnight at least. She was away ten days. Dealing with the incident that led to the final parting of. the. ways for £22&SJ=S.5»wX.l£James came home on the Friday night with a man named McDonald, who SI tSSSS. 5Mr ESL2*3 brutally assaulted: her. • ■ ■• •■'■•■■..

he came into the kitchen when his better half said to nlm: «what the are you doing lost his temper and hit her about three, times. you didn't care two straws what happened to your wife when you v push-; ed her out In the rain?— Not at the time; I did after.,. ; ,: .' •„' /. Queßtloned closely about the earlic Proceeding wWch M. «f.-*» were started, James denied vehemently all knowledge of them, Lawyer" SleVwright received the * ... ,* » court's permission to see if the records contained any mention of the, matter, After peruslng the court record book for the particular year m question, counsel asked the court clerk to search among the files, and later'went him.^f seir t0 ftSßlßtA golden silence settled down on the court for five minutes. When at the sel -returned bearing m his hands a bundle of blue documents, defendant swunfif round and followed with his counsel's nnDroach Into court eyes s Into court, /'These are they,, sir," said counsel and tie read aloud the names of the par£ies and th grOunds for the ' separation _ perslstent cruelty and drunkenness. "There Is also a conyiction for drunkenness," he went on, but Magistrate Salmon cut him short, saying: "It is not necessary to go into that." ■"• *-*.«. I-awyer Leicester,: What has your client to say about this, Mr. Leicester?" ;™;; *. *• «•»* *„*„■„* about it. Its new to him." '

hers, "I was sitting down having my tea," she said, "when they arrived. MoDonald knocked at the door,"-as he did

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-- The bench (heatedly): I questioned him on this point ' and h ° Bald+(r? fe V; ri ng to notes), "I know nothing of

sometimes for a . joke, ,and m the same spirit I said:'°With % l ring of truth m her clear, definite statements, Mrs. Donnelly said James had walked into the kitchen and struck her with his fist. Counsel: Where was McDonald: — He had gone into the bathroom. . What occurred then?—l went into the scullery, where he thumped me. McDonald came out and tried to drag him off Donnelly's dinner was standm? on the SZ He.picked, up, the plate of fish and threw it at'me, but McDonald got m between and received the contents of the plate all over hia clothes James was m an ungovernable rage arid ordered her out of the house. Counsel: He literally kicked you out? —Yes, and threw a -bundle of my clothes out after me. _ . . . Mrs. Donnelly told her tale well, and with quiet demeanor m the box stood up to Lawyer Leicester's cross-exami-nation courageously. To her husband's counsel, she r.eiterated her statement that she had issued proceedings just prior to her husband leaving on the Wairuna.. . • The proceedings were adjourned because the magish;ate advised her to get more evidence. McDonald came to live with you and your husband about a week before the row?—Yes. ■ Didn't your husband come out Into the kitchen once and accuse you of squeezing hands?— That" is an absolute lie-. ' • .., , , You say your husband kicked you m McDonald's presence,?—Tes. .... : Mrs. Donnelly refused to be shaken from any detail of this assault by her husband. ' ' , ... When Lawyer Leicester of war, plaintiff stated that when James went away he left his allotment money with another woman. "I couldn't draw any of it," she said. She had no other recourse than to go out and work. ._ y Re-examined by her counsel, Lucy ■ .

. previous proceedings or threatened proceedings." This is the sort of thing that is going on week after week m this court. A man goes into that box and on Oath swears deliberate lies ... xi.ii. • i ■ ■» •»<* ■'" not able to pm him. I'vea good mind to order a prosecution for perjury. . Counsel sat down and the bench, with a note of finality, said that proceedings of this nature would not have been taken without some good cause, He believed the wife's story and found she had corroborated it m many details. He granted the desired order, fixing.the maintenance at £2 a week. ■ ' .... — —> ■•