BREACH OF CONTRACT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 290, 8 December 1931, Page 8

BREACH OF CONTRACT.

LOVE-MAKING AT NELSON. YOUNG WOMAN AWARDED £500. DISCUSSIONS ON RELIGION. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) NELSON, Monday. In the action in which Mr. Justice Blair gave judgment for plaintiff for £500 in respect of her claim against William Robert Millier, the plaintiff, Ellen Veronica Rose Bell, stated that she and defendant were constantly in,, company until August, 1924, when she received a letter from her fiance about her keeping company with Millier. She showed Millier the letter and he agreed that it was "just as well." That evening at her home he read the letter through. Then he said, "I love you and want you. I am prepared to become engaged to you right away, but you must make perfectly sure of yourself. If you want this fellow J Dan, because of what. I think of you I will pay your expenses to go to Auckland to see him." Witness had replied that she did not want to go and that she,wanted defendant. Miller knew she was a Catholic, and he often went to her church. -I here had been discussions on the matter of mixed marriages, There was a speaker at the time giving a sermon on mixed marriages and they went to hear him. On the following day defendI ant asked her to make an appointment with the missionary priest. He said he wished to talk it over with the speaker as he wanted to know what was expected of the parties in a mixed marriage. They went together to see the priest. Miller told the priest he was going to marry her. Defendant, in evidence, admitted telling plaintiff that he had never met anyone he thought he could many, but there, was no suggestion of marriage. He had never said he loved her. Defendant admitted he went with her to buy a signet ring to replace the one she had lost. That was a present he was making to her. "Had Miss Bell changed her religion for me," he said, "and I could have obtained the approval of my mother, I ■would have-married Miss 'Bell/ 1

"My view is that the religious question is one of recent arrangement, said his.Honor, in giving his decisiou. "Defendant says he is '. one.. of , thosj! desperate Presbyterians, but- I muck doubt if the question of religion OT , r ' ried him in the very least. While i" Nelson he was only in the Presbyterian Church about twice. "I cannot overlook the fact , that defendant admits lie wrote to plaint™ frequently in the first'year away, <« then the letters tapered off.'. lt seeffl* he had just gone cold and made up"' 8 mind to remain a bachelor. I wlie»e the girl was genuine and the religion bogy was raised to get him out ot I" 5, responsibilities." His Honor said the young woman W given up the best years of herJ'te ° defendant. "She has. been faithful .w him and she is entitled to substantial damages," concluded his Hoiior. Judgment was given for plaintiff for £500 with costs.