ALLEGED "DOUBLE LIFE."

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 207, 30 August 1918, Page 2

ALLEGED "DOUBLE LIFE."

CLAIM FOR MAIKTENAITCE. PECULIAR AUCKLAND CASE. An affiliation case containing most unueal features came before Mr E. JJ. JMoeloy, 8.M., this morning, when an elderly man, John Henry fc>tubbu. was charged that he wan father of the illegitimate child of a single woman, in opening the case, in wiiieh defendant denied paternity, Mr Hosking, for tUe complainant, stated that defendant was a man with :i -wife and a grown up family in Auckland, and for nine or ten yeare he had posed to the woman concerned and her family as a single man, being known to them under the name ot "Ooates" or Coutta. There were three single women in the family wJien he wa£ tiret introduced to it, and he successively proposed marriage to two of them, but kept continually putting the matter oil in each ease. Eventually the third sister, who wati 40 years of deaf, unable to speak intelligibly, and mentally deficient, gave birth to a child in April, 1917, and said that defendant -was the father. The woman's brother, in the preceding Man , .! , , spoke io "Ooates." who denied being the cause of the woman' 6 pregnancy, and refused to give any information about himself, lie dropped his visits to the family, and police and detectives were, employed to find ".Mr Coatee," who was from wlnit he had stated at odd times about himself, a ship's engineer, but no trace, of him could \f found. Eventually, over a year later, the brother «a-w defendant in :i tram, and followed hitn to Ivoad. where the calling ot a policeman resulted in the information •being obtained that defendant was .lotin Henry Stubbs, a married nian living in Beresford Street. Counsel stated tout after the birth of the child the womiui concerned had been removed to the Wolfe Home, and that her mental condition was such that ehe could not be called as a witness.

Evidence was given by a sister-in-law of the woman that she had known defendant for nine or ten years under the name of "Coatee," and that in June "1 IPHi she had seen defendant and the complainant in circumstances which prompted her to ask an explanation from him. She knew (hat he had regularly visited the home of the woman's parents, and was known there as "Coates ,, and a.s a single man. She had seen him walking arm-in-arm with a sister of complainant, and frequently waiting outside a mitnion hall on Sunday nights when the complainant and a sister were attending the mission meeting. She heard her husband ask defendant his name, and charge him with l>eing the father of the child, on account of what the child's mother said, and heard defendant deny the allegation, and defy her husband to find out him or his ntuae. That wa*< in March, 11*17. After that she did not see or could not find defendant till she and her husband saw him in a. tram in May this"year, and got his name in the manner already stated by counsel. The mother of the child was now 41 years of age. deaf, and mentally deficient. Her speech was co inarticulate that few pereons could understand her.

At thin stage Mr HoSking statod that he had conferred with Mr Vallance (for defendant), and they liud agreed, -with a view to a settlement, to request an adjournment sine die, the case to be brought on again on days' notice. lib Worship remarked that if there wae anything at all in the evidence avail able to support counsel's opening statement the case -was one much better .settled out of Court. He granted the adjournment as requested.