SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 191, 16 September 1909, Page 4

SUPREME COURT.

IN DIVORCE.

In the Divorce Court yesterday evidence was heard in the divorce ease, Edward Coulter "v. Eugenic Beatrice Coulter. Air. X. B. \veston tor the petitioner, no appearance of respondent. .Edward Coulter, the petitioner, living\at Wuitara, put in a copy of his ccrtilicate of marriage.. There were thirteen children of the marriage. His wife left him on 11th May, IJW4. She left of iier own free will, going to Kawhia by the steamer lua Ora, taking the whole of the children with her. tie made enquiries concerning their whereabouts, aim found ,a fen days later tliut they had gone by coach to ftotorua. Then he waited developments, expecting that .when the supply of money rani short his wife would have communicated with him. But he had not had a line.

His Honor: You don't seem to have troubled yourself very inuc.i. Petitioner: What was the ..use of me ruvhing about the country when I didn't know where lo look for llieinV His Honor thought there would be little difficulty in tracing a woman who was travelling about with thirteen children.

Petitioner: They don't take up much room, your Honor.

Coulter further stated that lie gave his wife no cause for leaving, unless that she might have been superstitious. ■•She had had her fortune told a few months before she left and that might nave "got 'hold of her," and sue may u.ive gone away believing she. was going to make a big fortune. When lie lcti home one morning tho children were being got ready for school and when lie fame back the whole family had gone. The grate was filled with burned paper, as' though a lot of letters had been burned.

His Honor said tha„ most people had letters that they would Jike to bum before going away like this, and particularly a wife leaving' her husband. "Perhaps she was burning your love letters S"

Petitioner: Oh, she had none of those, your Honor.

■His Honor: Perhaps that was the reason she left.

Petitioner continued: All the clothes had been taken. lie was) the driver of the Waitiira-New Plymouth coach. When be got back home that night he got no tea. His Honor: That seems to be of more important • than the loss of the thirteen children.

Charles Hugh Stott, of Waitara, as a shipping agent, rcuiembered issuing tickets on the 11th May, 1004, for Mrs. Smith and children. He found that "Mrs. Smith" was Mrs. Coulter, ana an saw them on the vessel. He had never &'een them since.

Arthur Wilding Ogle, chemist and druggist at Waitara, said that Mrs. Ogle had had the eldest Coulter girl as maid. One morning the girl was sent for, and left. He had never seen Mrs. Coulter or any of the children sioce. Decree nisi, to be made absolute in three months. IN BANKRUPTCY. -

Mr T. S. Weston, Crown solicitor, acting for Mr. J. S. Medley, deputy official Assignee, moved' for an order, with regard to Frederick William AVhite, of Eltham, bankrupt, disclaiming a memorandum of transfer entered into ny me bankrupt, null and void as against tno deputy official Assignee, and also in the alternative, for an order that bankrupt's wife should pay the Hint m certain improvements. Mr. Weston placed" before His Honor an affidavit by Mr. Medley. This showed that bankrupt, who was a carrier at Eltham, was adjudged bankrupt in July. About a year before this he had entered into an agreement to purchase pome land. On this property sic spent about £MIO in improvements, which, included the erection of a stable. A few weeks before the bankruptcy proceedings White transferred this property to his wife. It was this transfer that the Deputy Official Assignee sought to have set aside. The alternative order, that Mrs. White should pay for the improvements mentioned, was sought in the event of the first being refused. His Honor gave his decision after the luncheon recess. He said he would make an order, but he would have to luok into matters again before deciding what form the order should take.