WOMEN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 300, 12 May 1913, Page 6

WOMEN'S WORLD.

STRANGE DIVORCE STORY MUCH-MARRIED WOMAN. '•HATED LIKE A SCORPION." A remarkable story was told in the Divorce Court, Sydney, a few days ago, when Linora McLean (formerly Lee-Hill) brought a suit against George McLean, a grazier, of Inverell, for the restitution of conjugal rights. Petitioner, a middle-aged woman, gave evidence that prior to her marriage with respondent she had been housekeeper at his station at Paradise East, at a weekly salary of £l. She had been there about two weeks when McLean proposed to her. She refused at first, and he promised her £IOOO a year for life and a home. Eventually she married him. Her husband had told her that he was worth £300,000, and had formed his station properties into a company, from which he received £IOOO a year. Subsequently her husband's sons brought about a separation. She went to Paradise on one occasion, and found him uncared for and neglected. Her husband left her of his own free will, but was rescued on the road to Glen Innes by 14 men on horseback. A lady detective, who was with petitioner, who compelled McLean's captors to release him from the hotel at Elsinore, where he was locked up. Petitioner and respondent resumed their journey, and subsequently stayed at Parramatta. They had been at a hotel there five days, when one morning—in October, 1911—while she was bathing her husband, the lady detective rushed in, exclaiming "The McLeans are coming." Her husband said, "Oh, Lena, don't let them take me." Before she could dress him her stepsons burst into the room, and subsequently took their father away. Prisoner issued a summons for desertion, and an order was made for £2 10s a week. On the following day the respondent came home to her in Sydney. A couple of days later Willie McLean came with two constables and an order for the custody of respondent as an inebriate, and took him away. That was the last time she had lived with her husband. PETITIONER'S FIVE HUSBANDS. Mr. Windeyer: How many times have you been married? Petitioner: Four times legally married, and once I married a man who had a wife living at the time. Under cross-examination, petitioner added that her first husband in New South Wales was Constable Baker. She had been convicted (wrongfully) of bigamy with Baker. / Her first husband was Charles Stone, and her second Herbert Lee-Hill. Petitioner admitted having been sentenced to two years' imprisonment for bigamy, of which sentence she served a year and four months. After her release from Bathurst she went into the country as housekeeper to a man named Doolan, whom she married. Doolan was accidentally shot. She was not 15 years old when she married her first husband, Stone, who was a captain in the Bth Lancashire Regiment. She was a widow at 19, her husband being drowned in a boating accident on the Thames, Her maiden name was Hall Dare.

Petitioner denied that she compelled her husband to accompany her 05' force, and that the woman detective mentioned (Mrs. Mortison) kept the station servants at bay with a revolver. Mr. Young (for petitioner): Did he tell you anything about his past? Petitioner: "Yes, he was pleased at my telling him about myself, and said, "Lena, my trouble was that someone else would tell you that I was transported to this country for murder." Several witnesses gave evidence, as to quarrels between petitioner and respondent. Mr. Mackenzie (respondent's solicitor) stated that his client had been in the habit for years of indulging in hopeless debauches. Dr. George McLean, a son of respondent, said: "Prior to the marriage between petitioner and respondent, in March, 1911, I had occasion to engage a cook and a housekeeper for the station. I went to a registry office, and engaged petitioner, without references, at ' £1 per week. That was five or six weeks before the marriage, and some weeks after her engagement as cook she came into my office at Sydney, and said that she was married to my father, and that her bank account had run out. Her aacount at a draper's had been stopped. I called attention to the fact that she had had £3OO or £4OO in three or four weeks, and that my father had written, telling the drapery firm not to give her any more credit." "WENT AT ME LTKE A BEAR." George McLean, respondent, sa : d: My wife first ill-treated me when she had spent hundreds of pounds of my money, and I rebuked her. She called me "a measly old hound," and went at me like a bear. When I refused tn sign cheques, my wife exclaimed, "You old hound, I will never let you go." On the occasion of my wife's second visit to Paradise station she was accompanied by a lady called Mortison. She was a French woman, and carried a revolver, and said that she was a detective. I resisted being taken away, but I left at the point of the revolver. In cross-examination, respondent, who is 80 years old, was asked, "You are still pretty strong, apparently?" Respondent: I was until .1 met her, but I have become a complete wreck since. Now, i 3 it a fact that you were glad to get back to your wife?—No, I hated her like a scorpion. What sort of a woman was this French woman? —"Froggy," in my opinion, was a vulgar woman. Now, wasn't she a pretty woman?— No; she was like a hedgehog; bristles sticking out all over. (Laughter). She was an ugly-looking French woman, and I believe she would shoot a man, hog, dog, or devil. (Laughter).