HOTEL KEEPERS' WIFE.

Shannon News, 21 May 1926, Page 4

HOTEL KEEPERS' WIFE.

SUIT FOR SEPARATION. UNUSUAL FEATURES. WELLINGTON, May 20. An unusual divorce case came before Mr- Justice Macgregor to-day when application was made and granted for leave to defend a petition by James Godfrey Frobisher, late of the Royal Navy, an<l{ now licensee of the Albion Hotel, for a judicial separation from hud wife, Florence Irene, on the grounds of cruelty. Mr Jackson for respondent, said the suit was brought by the husband after less than four years of marriage, He was 29 and she 24. She/ had informed him she did not understand the proceedings or meaning of the papers served on her in the matter. The petition alleged persistent cruelty, but on the cither hand, said counsel, she had been subjected to many -acts of cruelty, been beaten, given black eyes and bruised all over. Mr Scott, for petitioner, denied that the wife was unintelligent, but said she had told her husband she would put. him to all the trouble and expense she could. The inference was that the case was to be held up. In the meantime Frobisher might lose his license, owing to the happenings in the hotel. Bottles and jugs were being thrown at him and he was afraid to go home after dark. Has Honour: Cannot, some arrangement be made for her to go somewhere else. Mr Scott: She refuses to leave the house. The Judge said he considered the woman should have the right to defend herself no matter how she had ignored the procedure. Leave to defend was granted and the Judge advised that the wife should leave the hotel premises.