RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT. This Day. [Before Mr. Edward Shaw, R.M.]

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 41, 17 August 1881, Page 3

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT. This Day. [Before Mr. Edward Shaw, R.M.]

DRUNKENNESS. John M'Pheil was discharged with a caution, i A CURIOUS CASE. Edwin Joseph Hoskius, who appeared with a crutch under his left arm and a square piece of plaster on the crown of his head, was charged on the information of his wife, Lydia Hoskins, with being the father of Alice and Mabel Hoskins, aged 8 and 6 years respectively, to whose support he had failed to Bupport. Mr. Gordon Allan appeared for Mr. Hoskins, a shoemaker, who denied that he was the father of the children named. Mra. Hoskins, on the other hand, asserted that the children owned him as their father. She married tho defendant at Mongonui fifteen years ago, but for the past five years she had, she said, been living apart from her husband. She admitted she had one child — a little girl named Minnie — by another man. What she wanted now was that the defendant might be made to take charge of the children ; she did not want an order for their Bupport. Mr. Hoskins doposed that he was now maintaining the only children of whom ho was the father. About ten years ago he was called from home to go to Westport, and after an absence of 18 months, he returned to find that his wife had jast given birth to another child, in consequence of which he refused to cohabit with her. Lydia Hoskms was charged with assaulting Edwin Joseph Hoskins, who therefoie prayed that she might be bound over to keep the peace. The evidence went to show that on the 9th instant tho defendant wecit to her husband's shop, when warm words took place, culminating in the assault complained of. The complainant said his wife seized some boots lying at the counter and flung them at his head, inflicting an ugly gash Both cases were adjourned until Tuesday next, in order that additional evidence might be adduced to clear up the point of the disputed paternity.