NRS-20195 | Record of Maintenance Orders and index [Griffith Court of Petty Sessions]

Full description

This series contains a record of papers from the Griffith Court of Petty Sessions relating to maintenance orders issued by the court. These maintance orders were mostly made against husbands or de facto husbands by women who had been deserted and were entitled to maintenance for their children under the Deserted Wives and Children Act 1901-1939, the Child Welfare Act 1939, and the Maintenance Act 1964. The series also contains a seperate index to the maintenance orders.

The majority of the papers are titled, "Minutes of Orders from the Court for Maintenance", which gives basic details of case and the court's decision. Some cases also include papers titled, "Minute of Varied Order", "Minute of Order of Court on Appearance of Defendant to Show Cause", "Notice of Hearing", and "Minute of Order of Maintenance and Primary Expenses". On occassion, there may be correspondence from the Child Welfare Department, or from wives regarding their husbands' disobedience of maintenance orders.

The papers have been glued into two guard books. Guard Book No. 1 was originally two books joined together by removing the back cover of the first book and the front cover of the second book. The books have since been separated again, and are individually wrapped. Guard Book No. 2 is still whole. The two index books appear to have been compiled at a later date to the guard books.