HUSBAND AND WIFE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10286, 14 July 1911, Page 7

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

EVADING RESPONSIBILITY.

By Telegraph — Press Association

WELLINGTON, Last Night. What was described by the Chief Justice as a novel application was decided in the Supreme Court by His Honour to-day. The case was the first of its kind, in New Zealand, and was in the form of an application by Margaret Atkins, the 'wife of a railway servant drawing £355 per year, to annul lier husband's bankruptcy. The parities had been separated since October, 1899. The husband agreed to pay hi® wife £2 per week for the first year, and £2 10s per week therealter; btit he never paid more than the former sum, and was sued for ?tJhe arrears. He then filed his .schedule. The bankrupt stated that there •was a moral agreement by the wife to accept £2 per week, and altogether he had paid her and the children £IBOO. The Chief Justice, in giving judgment, said it was a deliberate attempt to get rid of an ag: •"- iment for the support of the man's wife and family. There could not be a clearer abuse of the Court than in (this ease, and the bankruptcy would he annulled with costs, five guineas, j against the bankrupt.