LOTTIE WILMOT IN COURT: A LADY IN THE GALLERY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3063, 21 April 1881, Page 4

LOTTIE WILMOT IN COURT: A LADY IN THE GALLERY.

The Oivvvji Prosecutor, at this stage of the proceed; ugs, said he understood His Honor to make an order that all the women and children should be excluded from the Court. If io, the order had beon disobeyed.

His Honor : The order of the Court must be obeyed. Mr Brookfield : It was ono of the reasons that induced me to ask that your . Honor should order that gallery door to be closed. I think that the order of the Court is peremptory, and not obeying it would he contempt.

His Honor: In this case I believe the order has been wilfully disobeyed.

Mr Brookfield : I have heard of an occasion when Sir Cresswell Cresswell in a Divorce Court in London made a similar order, but two ladies or women had concealed themselves behind one of the doors of the Court. His Honor inquired of the crier whether he had requested all the " respectable" women to leave the Court. The crier answered in the affirmative. " Then," said the learned 'Judge, " turn out the rest."

His Honor : I must have the order of the Court obeyed.

Mr Brookfield : I think it must be some morbid feeling that could induce a respectable person to hear the details of such a case as this. Ladies were said to possess a greater share of natural curiosity than the rest of human nature. He had seen it stated that a lady was lecturing upon very recondite topics of Biblical history. The Court was not the place at any time, least of all on the present occasion, where materials were to bo sought for on " forbidden fruib." His Honor : I must request; that the lady shall withdraw. The Registrar ordered the crier to the gallery (where the lady sat concealed and closely veiled behind one of the arched spandrils of the roof), with instructions to clear the gallery and lock the door. The lady received the crier with much sang and informed him that she was froia, ' m'ofessional capacity, present in i> x ■ l ent Thompson despatched Mr Superintend to the gallery, and Constable Hutcbinson " *-he lady at once, his presence there moved t ' of his visit, He informed her of the object "t. The and inquired what she came therein. the lady said " she was taking notes for newspapers." The constable appealed to t>, forcible rednotio ad ahsurdum, and told her that her notes for the newspapers must be l( taken" outside of the building. The lady thereupon rose from her seat and withdrew,