OCCUPIED SAME HOUSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1943, Page 3

OCCUPIED SAME HOUSE

BUT NEVER LIVED AS MAN & WIFE EVIDENCE IN DIVORCE CASE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 5. The statement that the parties, though occupying the same house, had never lived as man and wife, was made during the hearing of a divorce action before Mr Justice Callan. Petitioner was Rowland Clarence Bailey, an officer of the New Zealand military forces, who sought a divorce from Cressell Beatrice Bailey on the ground of separation. Petitioner gave evidence that he married respondent in Wellington in 1928. They lived at Palmerston North, where he was in business as an optician. A separation was agreed upon, but they continued to occupy the same house, and respondent later became an employee of his firm. Petitioner volunteered for service on the outbreak of war, and when he was drafted into camp in June, 1940, he and his wife agreed that it was a good opportunity to make the separation an actual one. Petitioner stated that respondent said she did not desire any maintenance and when he made an allotment from his Army pay in her favour she put the money in the bank in his name. While he was in camp they had corresponded only insofar as it affected business. ■ No evidence was offered on behalf of respondent and his - Honour granted petitioner a decree nisi.