HER LIVELY WEEK-ENDS

NZ Truth, Issue 1211, 14 February 1929, Page 7

HER LIVELY WEEK-ENDS

Bouts of Fistic Argument Leave Bruises Galore "TOO UNHAPPYTO GO BACK" (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative). | Apparently Mrs. Hilda Kate Wells has not a very high | 1 .'opinion of Feilding, for Mr. J. J. Sullivan, acting for her . 1 | husband, John William Wells, tried to get the wife to say § I that she had said that it "was a one-eyed show." She | | however, would not concede the statement to be authentic. 1 .^iiMiiiiiiiiniiiiiinmnHniiunniiMiiiiMiHimMiniimiiiiiiiiiummiMM

"TWELVE long years ago, Mrs. Wells * departed from Palmerston North • with her family, leaving her-hus-band working on the Feilding Star as a linotyper. Since then she has not lived with him, and she told. Mr. Cutten, S.M., that she could not go back. Her reason for coming to court was to ask for maintenance for herself and she told his worship through her legal adviser, Mr. Bennett, that when they had lived together her husband had ill-used her, and made her arms black and blue. Another grievance of the wife's was that her husband was frequently changing his place of employment, and it really amounted to the fact that, she could not keep pace with him. On the other hand when cross-ex-amined by Mr. Sullivan she was compelled to admit that her husband had .been at Feilding for the last twelve years. "I never said I didn't want to live m a one-eyed place like Feilding," stated Mrs. Wells. . * ' " "Why didn't you go to Feilding?" asked Mr. Sullivan. Mrs. Wells replied that she had no objection to the place, but her husband used to come home and knock her about. . - She admitted that she had not complained to outsiders, but only to her own people. "What did you tell your mother he

[|||||||||!llllll(||!llllll!lllll!!l![|||!l!l!llllflil!!l!ll![l!lllll!!llllllllll!!!lillll!ll!lflllll!llll did to you?" demanded Wells's lawyer. . "I showed my mother the marks on my arms. I was marked all along the arms. He used to knock me about and catch hold of me." "How often?" "Well, he only came home once a week," was the answer. "Was it over a boarder?" Mr. Sullivan inquired. ■ ■) ■ - Mrs. Wells explained that she did not take m boarders— sne let rooms, and she went on to explain that there had never been a fight over a man named Bridges. Her husband had never spoken to her about him; m fact, Bridges used to come to their home with her husband. "Of course this was twe2ye years ago," said Mrs. Wells, with a suggestion m her voice that time heals all things. ' Further, she stated that she had been going to see ■ a lawyer but she didn't go. Her husband had allowed her £3 a week, and if she had come up to Auckland after selling up the home it had been because her doctor had ordered her away. She had sold the furniture with the consent of her husband, and it had realised £25. "Did Bridges come up to Auckland ?" asked Mr. Sullivan.- Mrs. Wells replied that he had not; she had never seen him m Auckland, and she. did not know where he was since she had lived m the Queen City. ■ Mr. Sullivan was most persistent m his enquiries as to whether Mrs. Wells was willing to return to her husband, but she replied: "I was too unhappy to go back to him. I couldn't do it. NO." ■■-/ ' ■ ■: ■ ■•".'. '

On this point she was very definite. It did not matter how good his position was. "He will take you back," announced Mr. Sullivan. * . ■ "He may have written to me m a „ half-hearted way to return," said Mrs. Wells when pressed on this matter, but she did not think that he wanted her. "He came up to take you back?" -■. suggested Mr. Sullivan. "No," replied Mrs. Wells. "He came \ up for his holiday." "You don't want to go back because he lives with his own people?"' Mrs. Wells was looking somewhat tearful at this juncture and her lips \ trembled; she had no direct answer. "Well, is it that you .don't like Feilding?" persisted the ihusband'sadviser. ' . "Feilding doesn't trouble me," was the reply. She admitted that she had heard the expression about a "one-eyed show," but she would not admit that she had used it. • The court was left to guess whether • she had written, two letters saying >i that she would not go' back to Feild- ' ing as suggested by Mr. Sullivan; m . any case it was many years ago. ~ To Mr. Bennett: "My daughter says she won't go back."- . . Mrs. Catherine Signal, widow of Wanganui, was then called by Mr. Bennett. She related how she hao lived about a mile from her daughter,

ll!!lllllll!lllllllll!)li!lllllll)ll!!l!l!]l!l!)llllilllll!llllllllll)|]ll!lll!lll!lllilllllllllllinn and she remembered one night m parti culau when she had examined her daughter who was "black and blue, all over." , ■ ' '_ This would seem to have been the ; outcome of her daughter having asked her husband why he didn't come home . with some money. Describing the incident, Mrs. Sig- , nal said: "He cursed and swore . at me and. told me to go to the hot place." v "Did he use bad , language to his. wife?" Mr. Bennett wanted to know. "He didn't use much else," replied the mother. She went on to say that she never saw her son-in-law actually hit \his wife, but he pushed v and stioved her. . This she enlarged upon to say that he came home every week-end the •.. worse for liquor. The questioning being taken up by Mr.' Sullivan he was told that Wells had obtained a job at Eketahuna, but., had never asked, his wife to go there. She amplified' this Toy saying that "you can't get on with a man who is al- , ways cursing and swearing." Mrs. Wells was later living with her .peo- , pie and he was living with his at Feilding. . . :■ Mr. . Sullivan asked if Mrs. Wells . had had black eyes, too, and for some moments Mrs. Signal was not..inclined to answer. Finally she replied: ''I didn't say she had black eyes. I told you she was black and blue all over. I don't think he ever meant her to come back." ...'.. ■ Mr. Cutten, S.M., closed the proceedings by making an order of £1 per 'week. •