PECULIAR DIVORCE CASE. A Barmaid the Plaintiff. (From the Auckland "Star," Dec. 24.)

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 83, 3 January 1885, Page 3

PECULIAR DIVORCE CASE. A Barmaid the Plaintiff. (From the Auckland "Star," Dec. 24.)

The hearing of the petition for the divorce of Jane Sophia Jones from Henry, King Bowen Jones began in Melbourne on Saturday before Judge Higinbotham. The respondent did not appear. The wife was. formerly a barmaid in the Union Club Hotel, Collins-street, where she made the respondent's acquaintance. After nine months' friendship the parties were married. Three weeks subsequently Jones had delirium tremens, and after his recovery refused to dine at the same table with his wife. He never spoke to her or allowed her money. A clerk to the solicitors for the petitioner proved that he served a citation on the respondent in his residence, Frankston. Jones asked the clerk whether the proceedings would be expensive. The clerk replied that it depended on whether the suit was contested. Jones said that he should not contest it, but still he refused to live with his wife. Ha had not given instructions for at deed of separation to be prepared. Jones was formerly a resident in Albury. James Mitchell said that he was one of the trustees mentioned in the deed of settlement (produced). The deed was executed on April 26th, 1879, in a solicitor's office in Albury. It was Mr Steel who took an activo part in the matter. The petitioner, who was examined, said that she was married to the respondent on July 24th, 1877, in St. John's Church, Melbourne. She had no relations in Melbourne, but thought that her mother lived in Hobart. She stayed with her husband three weeks in the Prince of Wales Hotel, St. Kilda, during which time her hu.3band had delirium Iremens. They then went to live with the respondent's mother in Albury. Her husband relapsed into drinking for three days after she went to visit his sister. While she was absent t>ho heard that her husband had gone away. About September she went to Scott's Hotel, accompanied by Mr Steel j but returned to Albury on the next day, as Mr Steel informed her that 'the re! spondent would not see her. She was not told of her husband's whereabouts. In December she left Mrs Jones's house, because her mothor was afraid that the respondent, who had returned, would do some violence. She then took a house for herself, her mother, and sister in St. Kilda. Duiing March, IS7S, they broke up the establishment, and in February, 1579, went to Mrs Jones's in Albury, and she signed a deed of separation without [reading it. A statement therein that they agreed to live apart for the iuture was untrue, as was also a statement that tho yeurly income which had been settled on her by her husband should be divided. She had heard that her husband was living with other women. She composed the°following letter hcisclf, and received the annexed reply :—" Melbourne, August 13, 1878, JJcnry, when your relatives advised me ftume time back to come to tow n, I thought it po^ible that you might see the error of your ways, and that someday you might be prepared to treat mo as a wife; but, if reports* bo true, I presume that I may give up all idea of your abandoning your -Jissuluto life and intemperate habits. If you can prove to my satisfaction that certain things* that 1 liavo heard aro not true, and that the reports arc false, I could still forget your cruelty to me, and, if you promise to treat me as a husband should do, I will come back and live with you. But if tho things that I have heard are true, I will not have anything to say to you, and I will appeal to the Court for a divorce. Waiting your reply— J.S. Jones ; XI. Jones, Esq., Albury." "Albuiyj 15 |S i 78. Jinnie, it is some time since you left me to go to your friends in Melbourne Strange to say, you now seem io think that I may have turned over a new leaf, and would take you back and treat you as a husband should ti eat a wife. But, the fact of the matter is, I never did care for you sufficiently well to wholly give up my intemperate habits for a thankless woman like you are. I don't know what on earth ever possessed me to marry you. I must have been mad to go and do such a rash act, more especially as you were little more than a stranger tome, and as everybody knows up here, I care for somebody else far more than I could care for you. I will not attempt to prove to you that the reports you heard were false or the contrary. I dare say that what you did hear was quite true. X don't want your forgiveness for my cruelty to you ; I can do just as well without it j thank you all the same. I know that I could not be kind to you, or treat you better than I did formerly. So the best thing you can do is to stay away from me, as I never intend to alter my way for you or anybody else. You can act as you like in the matter.— H. R. B. Jones."