CULT OF NUDISM

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 449, 3 June 1937, Page 2

CULT OF NUDISM

MARRIAGE TROUBLES Young Couple Separate Melbourne, May 27. How differing views, on the cult of nudism had led to the separation of a young couple within a year of their marriage was told in a case which came before Judge Foster in General Sessions .this week. John Stuai’t Lennie, bank clerk, of Windsor, a suburb of Melbourne, appealed aglaantt an order by the Prah. ran -Court that he should- pay his wife, ‘Dbris Louise Lennie-, £1 5s a, week as maintenance.

Mr L. Little,,counsel for Mrs Lennie, sJid that the parties were married on March 7, 1936. Shortly after their marriage they went to live with Mrs Lennie’s- parents, Mr and Mrs Ryder, in Prahran. Mrs Lennie rea. l.sed tha't her husband wished to practis e nudism and to take her -sunbathing. She constantly objected. He wanted ’to introduce her to a nudist club in Mie Hills, and once he took her ther e for .sunbathing. When she found .that others were present she objected and there was a quarrel. Mrs Lennie had- per. sistently objected to practising -the cult, and now she was practically a wreck, both nervously and physically. Statement by Wife.

On February 10 last, added Mr Little Lennie bad left home. He returned five days later, and during a quarrel with his wife he had hit her with a walking stick. He had not lived with her since.

Mrs Lennie gave evidence on the lines of her counsel’s statement. Cross-examined by Mr R. M-. Eggle ston, counsel f or Lennie, she said that she had sun-Whed in th e nude with Lennie shortly before their mar. Gage, but there had never been anyone else present. Nudism was his mam hobby; it seemed ,to, be a fetish with him.

Ml- Eggleston said that Lennie was a man who did everything with terric application land energy, including sun.bathing. He had become interest-

ed 1 in sun-bathing two or three years before he met his wife. It was by no means his only occupation. H e 'took a keen interest in the Douglas Social Credit movement, in foreign languages, in cycling, in swimming and in photography. He wias also interested :n 'the nude form from the point of view of artistic photography. . . 4 Solarium Constructed. Until Lennie met his future wi f : he had never sun.bathed in 'the nude with members of the other sex outside his own family, said Mr Eggleston. Lennie and his family had constructed a solarium at ‘the home of Lennie’s father. Mrs Lennie originally hiad asked Lennie’s mother if she could use the solarium. That was how she met Lennie She had never objected to sun-bathing in the nude. After Lennie had given evidence on the lines of his counsel’s statement he was questioned by Judge Foster. Asked whether ’ he? believed that there- was no relation between nudism and sex Lennie replied: ‘There is probably a great, deial o f relation to sex. There is a complete understanding of sex, and there is no ehame attached .to it. I believed that if my wife became a sun.ba'ther she would become strong and- healthy. I B'till believe in nudism, but I would give- it up—l jjvould give up everything—if my wif e would come back.” Comment by Judge, Asked by Judge Foster what the Weal of nudism was, Lennie said 'that it was the psychological idea that there was no sham e in the human, body. Lennie said- that he had ‘‘pen triends’’ in Japan, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Belgium. There was laugh.er in Court when th e following passage was read from a letter which Lennie had written to a “pen friend’’ in Austria:—“Thie year has been a bud one -for nu-dis't-s in Melbourne; it has rained nearly every week-end ” Discussing the appeal, Judge Foster said that the- case was an extraordinary one. The parties would have been very much better advised- 'to have consulted a psychiatrist rather than solicitors. He considered tha't the wife was justified iu refusing to accept .the home which her husband had offered.