THE LADY FROM ONEHUNGA.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 July 1919, Page 7

THE LADY FROM ONEHUNGA.

A DIVORCE COURT STORY. LONDON, May 30. An echo of an Auckland scandal was -heard in the Divorce Court on May 29, when the undefended suit of Avenall v. Avenall was heard by Mr. ustice Salter. Mrs. Eva Pattie Avenall asked for relief from the yoke matrimonial on the usual grounds, plus desertion, and named as the corespondent Mrs_ Paula Harke. The facts subnlitted to the Judge were sufficientl)’ conclusive to obtain for Mrs. Avenan the 1-euef she desired, and also the custody of the two children of her marriage, which took pladé in 1903 at Rushall, Staffordshire. After living together in harmony at Walsall and elsewhere they went to New Zealaml iii January 1906, In 1910, while they were at Onehunga, they made the acquaintance of Mr Harke, whose wife was in England and Mrs. Avenall kept house for Mr. Harke in his wife's absence, whilst her husband acted as Mr. Harke’s secretary. In October, 1910, Mrs. ,I-larke returned, and Mr. and Mrs_ Avenall moved to a furnished house nearby. Shortly afterwards, trouble arose because of Avcnall’s relations ;with Mrs. Harke, who was turned out iof the house by her husband Avenall rtook lodgings for Mrs Harke on the ,othcr side of the harbour, and visited {her there almost every day Early in 1911 lle.said he was going to Austra’lia with Mrs Harke, and he paid his ’wife’s passage to England. In May, Xl9ll, she received a letter from Mrs. jHarke, from which she learned that Iher husband was in England_ She met him, and he asked her to return to him. She agreed to do so if he would break as his relations with Mrs. Harke. He took a house called Sweet Briars at Blindley Heath, and in June she met him at Cannon Street with the children to go to Sweet Briars. Mrs. Harke was with him, and he insisted that she should accompany them. Mrs. Avenall protested, and insisted that her husband must choose between her and Mrs_TlErkc. He refused to give up Mrs Harke, and from June, 1911 to ‘August, 1911, while Mrs. Avenall lived’ at Sweet» Briars with ‘her husband Mrs. Harkc lived there also. In June, 1911, the re_spondent wrote a letter in which he said.—“ This is to sayfthat the property known as ‘Sweet Briars, furniture, and inlfact, everything other than a‘ few personal effects, does not ~belong‘ to me. . .It belongs to the lady who found the money, also clothes, that‘ enabled Pattie to return. to England_

. . . Our marriagp, I may say, has proved an utter failure . _ and I decline absolutely to live, with Pattie any longer. ‘I have been living .with the lady indicated in New Zealand. and ever since my return to England and nothing that anyone céin "do Or say or any influence or inducement of any kind will make me cease living with the lady as my wife_ I offer no reason for my action except that I care far more for this lady/than

I have ever cared or wish ever to care for anything in this Wol‘ld.’-’

Avenall and Mrs. Harke, left Sweet Bl'i;2.rs in August, 1911_. and Mrs. Aven. all had never lived with respondent, since. She saw him in Septembef, 1914, after he had joined the Army, when he appealed to her’l’lsE to begin divorce proceedings While he was in the army, because he said that he would be “drummed out” if-she did. She promised, and did not beginfprocecdings until after the respondent, who had achieved the rank of captain was demobilised last Decemßer.