MADAME MELBA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3988, 14 December 1891, Page 3

MADAME MELBA.

Alleged Cruelty by Her HurtaaO, A London correspondent, writing en October 31st, to a contemporary, says :—No one could have been more surprised than Mme. Melba, when on Friday afternoon a smart solicitor rapped at the door, and, being admitted, served her with the copy of an application for a divorce applied by her husband, Captain Charles Nes bit her, and citing the Duo d'Orleans as co-respondent. Over _ six weeks ago her solicitors, Messrs and Mallesons, ha-3 filed on a petition in the High Court of Justice in England, divorce division, for a judicial separation against her husband on the ground of cruelty. She charges specially that within three ironths of their marriage, which took place in 1882, and at a time when she was in a delicate condition, he struck her with his fist at Fort Mackay, Queensland. This he did for the purpose of obtaining money from her. Two months after the birth of her child in December, 1888, he again Assaulted her with a driving whip. In 1886, while on board the steamer Bengal on the voyage from Melbourne, he assaulted her twe, with his fist, inflicting several injuries On the first occasion she alleges he gave her a blow on the ear, knocking her down and causing deafness, which lasted for several weeks. Further, that shortly after their marriage, and until the spring of the present year, when be left for Australia, he continued to treat her with unkindness, extorting money and failing to contribute to her support. In 1887 at Brussels, she alleges, he pursued her with a razor. In the autumn of 1889 at Lausanne he violently kicked her and a candlestick at her, which struck her a severe blew on the back. Finally, in February of this year he renewc 1 his ill-treatment. In March of the present year he extorted £BOO from her with which he went to Australia and in Ap%il he sent her a very violent letter. Finally, she being too much alarmed to continue living with j her husband, she asked for a separation.'-

She stated she had plenty of wit--4 nesses to prove the statements she hid made of cruelty by her husband, on the strength of which she had applied for a judicial separation. She looked upon her husband's action merely as a retaliation for legal steps which she was taking against him. His action was very sudden, and this statement was confirmed by Colonel Henry Mapleson, who was present, and who said that on the fifteenth . of this month Captain Armstrong had come to him and' offered to band him a cheque for £I2OO to settle the matter amicably. Mme. Melba, in .her action, asks for cosis aiid the care of her child, which is at school in England. To protect him he has been made a ward in chancery.