PENNILESS AND 83.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1922, Page 7

PENNILESS AND 83.

OLD MAN SEEKS MAINTENANCE. CLAM AGAINST WIFE. A husband of 83 years of age sought maintenance from his wife of 60 at the Stratford Magistrate’s Court yesterday. James Brown, a veteran of 83 years of age, who said he had been married to Rosie Brown for 14 years, claimed maintenance from his wife, stating that he was in poor health and eould do little work. He received pensions amounting to £1 per week and his wife had been practically maintaining him. His wife had some private means and owned the house the}' weiV living in. Last week his wife had told him to get out of the house and that she would give him no more meals. He went to stay at a boarding house, and now had only £1 4s, which was given him by his solicitor. He would have no money of his own from his pensions until January. 'Constable J. 11. Gill detailed his attempts to bring about a reconciliation between the parties. The wife asked why she should keep the old man. but had later promised to take him back for a few days, She broke her promise, however, and would not have her husband back. Counsel who appeared for the wife said that the woman had provided the old man with a home ever since his marriage at the age of 69. The old man had four children, but the wife had a still larger family, totalling 14. The wife had a duty to perforin to her own children before she maintained her husband, who had children of his own. The wife had been receiving only £l2 a month, and that irregularly, with which to keep her family and husband. Rosie Brown said she and Brown each had. a farm when they were married, but he then came to live with her. They had later removed into Stratford. Some of her children, who were on a farm, were supposed to pay her £l2 per month, but she seldom got it. Another son, on a 200 acre farm, was supposed to pay her 10s per acre each year, but he did not do so. Usually

now she only had to keep one daughter, who worked at their house. iShe thought the old man could still do a good bit, because her old dad was 89 and could fltill be seen digging the garden. She herself was sixty. She was going to apply for a separation order because her husband was not true to her. She did not drive him away from the house, but he went away himslf. The Magistrate said there was no question that the wife must be called upon to maintain her hUsbftiid, the Whole question being her ability to pay. Counsel mentioned that an attempt was being made to have the old man admitted to a veterans’, home, and the ease was adjourned for a fortnight, the wife to pay her husband’s board plus 5s per week in the meantime, and £1 Is solicitors’ expenses.