Extraordinary Elopement from the Wairarapa.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 156, 31 December 1887, Page 3

Extraordinary Elopement from the Wairarapa.

A FOOLISH WOMAN. Very few people who assembled to witness the Wakatipu take her departure for the South yesterday afternoon were aware, we believe, of a little scene which occurred below just before the steamer left. The parties in the matter were a woman about 15, a man about tho same age, a police officer, another man between 30 and 40 years of age, and a little girl aged 8 years, five persons in all. The representative of the law was Detective Campbell, and the woman was the wife of a large sheep farmer near Featherston. Tho child was her daughter, and the elder of the two men was her husband, the other being a man with whom she had eloped. Tho man for whom the woman has deserted her home, is a rough, unmannerly fellow, who had been shearing on her husband's station, and it is diffioult to see what there is in him for any woman to take a fancy to. The pair left the husband's house on Thursday afternoon, taking with them one of the children, a littlo girl who has the misfortune to be stone blind, and for whom the mothor has a great affeotion. The train was boarded at Foatherston, and Wellington was reached about 7.30 p.m. The guilty couple, together with the child, slept at an hotel on Lambtonquay that evening, and yesterday morning tickets for a Southern port were obtained at the Union Co.'s office. The husband discovered their flight on Thursday night, and came down in pursuit by the early train yesterday. Ho at once went to the Police Station, and asked to be assisted to get back his wife and daughter. Detective Campbell was instrnoted to do what he could in the matter, and the runaways were traced on board the Wakatipu, which was just leaving for the South. The husband implored his wife to return to her home, but Bhe refused, point blank, to part with her lover. The huspand then endeavoured to obtain possession of his daughter, but tho mother refused to surrender possession of the poor sightlesß oreature, and it was only with Detective Campbell's assistance that he was able to get possession of the child. The father and" daughter, escorted by the detective, then left the vessel, which steamed away a few minutes afterwards, carrying with her the eloping couple. The husband has now returned to his home, taking his daughter with him. The woman, who is tbe mother of no fewer than 15 children, some of whom are married, and who is not at all bad-looking, has, so far as we can learn, always received the greatest kindness from her husband, who is said to possess one of the most comfortable homes in the Wairarapa. The husband is naturally very much cut-up at his wife's faithlessness. .