WIFE WHO PREFERRED "UNCLE JIM."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 310, 4 October 1915, Page 3

WIFE WHO PREFERRED "UNCLE JIM."

Rendered frantic by the conduct ot (his wife, William Parker, 33, a soldier who had been discharged from 'hs Army as medically unfit, poisoned himself by taking oxalic acid. Laura Parker, th e widow, living at Beving'ii Street, Hex ton, who described herse'f as a fancy leather goods maker, said that, she had not lived with her hasbnad since July 27, on which day he reached home after being discharg ■:>. from the Army. Sjhe declined to live with (him again, as he had ill-treated her. The next day she saw him at her sister's house, when she told him she would keep the girl and herself and ,he could keep the boys. Her husband replied that he was unable to keep them all. Th e next day his sister informed her that Parker had left the beys .outside her house. As the wife cculd not afford to keep them, flhey we're taken to the workhouse. Constable Fawnes said a ten-year-oid son of Parker told him that his mother had gone away with Uncle Jim. He added, "She has taken all our home." Asked who Uncle Jim was, the boy said, "The man who has been here ever since my dad went away." The officer added that Parker's mother told him that her s'cn had always been a very good lad, and directly he joined tine Army his wife took her husband's own workmate, who had a wife and two children, to live with her. Mrs Parker sent the man away during the four days h er husband was home on leave, and when she knew her husband was ocming home for pood she tcok away all the home except her husband's photcgraplh and a few broken bits of fulrniture. The day after Parker committed suicide a. letter arrived offering him work at Wcolwich Arsenal. The jury found a verdict of "Suicide during temporafry insanity," brought on by the conduct of his wife, and they washed her to be censured. The coroner said to the widow: "The jury wish me to censure you. With their verdict I absolutely agree. That is all I want to say to you."