AN UNUSUAL CASE. ALLEGED FALSE DECLARATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1909, Page 7

AN UNUSUAL CASE. ALLEGED FALSE DECLARATION.

SOME COMPLICATIONS. 1 s The last case for hearing at the present criminal sessions of the Supreme Court was presented to Mr. Justice Chapman this morning. It was that of Colin Hector Kempton and Virginia Marion Kempton, a young married couple, who were charged with having made a false declaration under the Act, 1908. There were two counts—(l) That on 15th April lest they wilfully made, for the purposes of insertion in the marriage register book kept by the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, a false statement, to the effect that Virginia Marion Kempton, then Virginia Marion Williason, was twenty-one years of age, whereas her age was only eighteen years; and (2) that the false statement was made by Colin Hector Kempton. Mr. Myers conducted the prosecution and Mr. Wilford appeared for the prisoners, who pleaded not guilty. A LEGAL POINT. Mr. Myers opened the case briefly to the jury, but before the first witness w« called Mr. Wilford interposed. "If there is no father of the female prisoner," he said, "and the mother is dead, no consent could be given, and no false declaration be made/ As there would be in that case no consent to be given, the girl could be married at 18." Mr. Myers : "Consent does not enter into that aspect of the case. Age is required to be given." Mi. Wilford referred to section 23 of 1 the Marriage Act. If it was required under the Act that the consent of father or mother should be given and this declaration was made falsely because there 1 was no consent of the father, if there was no father, there was no requirement under the Act. His Honour : Quite apart from the question of consent, every civilised na- ■ tion requires actual particulars. Mr. Wilford : Since the Gretna Green • marriages, your Honour. His Honour : Not only that, but in connection with public health, and. in such matters as military service accurate statistics have to be preserved. With that object, independent of the parents' consent, the particulars have to 1 be obtained. 1 After further discussion, Mr. Wilford obtained His Honour's consent to allow^ the point to stand over until later in* the case. ! THE EVIDENCE. Evidence was then called. Gilbert Graham Hodgson, Registrar of , Marriages, Wellington, deposed to marrying the two accused at his office on the 15th April. He supplied a form of particulars required by the Registrar. This they filled in. On the form was a ques- , tion asked as to age! The bridegroom , gave his age us 23, and that of the bride as 21, signing his name to the declaration. Mr. Wilford v How many marriages do you solemnise in a year? • • Witness : About 250. Do you go through the ceremony mechanically '( —No. Like a graphophone ? —Certainly not. You do not get excited at the thought 1 of a marriage coming off? — No. Don't you read through the. pamcu lars likts this? —(Counsel rewal rapidly through the form.) —No, I g»»t them to read through.the particulars themselves. Are you sure Kempton can read ?—? — Well, he signed a cleslavation. If he can t read, it "Wasn't read over to him by you! — No* His Honour : Do you wish to suggest i that Mr. Hodgson, did not do his duty ? Mr. Wittord: "Not at all. I only wish to s^gge'at that with a boy and girl getting married like this their minds would be a blank. One knows oneself , the state of feeling during the marriage ceremony. , "In mv own case — His B ivnour : 'I don't think that «. member of the Bar need necessarily lose his head. , Mr. Myers :"There is no suggestion of a f.a,lse declaration. (Laughter.) Mr. Wilford : I would not like to be r/ut into the witness Tdox to say, your Honour. (Laughter.) All I remember of the ceremony — His Honour : I was there, Mr. Wilford, I remember. (Laughter.) . FATHER OF THE YOUNG WOMAN. Thomas Parkings Williason said that such was his name to the best of his belief and that the female accused was his I daughter. She was a little over 18. Ho [ was .living at 212 Willis-street prior to > the 15th April. Here his daughter made the acquaintance of Kempton, who i asked permission to keep .company with ) his daughter. About a fortnight later , they told him they wanted to get married. The witness said.he thought they had not known one another lung enough r and that his daughter was only 18 years f of agr. This was about three weeks.beT ±ore they got married. He had no furuier conversation with them until the Saturday after they got married. Kemp1 ton told him in the "street that they had i got married, and there would always be a home lor the father. He had never consented to the marriage. Mr. Wilford subjected the witness to ■* an exhaustive cross-examination. Williason admitted that he had lived away from his children for several years, and during that time had not contributed to their support. His -daughter had come to live with him after her' mother's death. Mr. Wilford : Did Kempton not ask leave to keep company and ask your consent to the marriage? — Yes. . And did- you not say there war. no hurry, and they had batter wait till • Labour Day?—No; they never told*me they wanted to get married ?t once. [ He offered you a home? —He said [ there would always be a homo for me. ( What was it you hoped to get by trying to put youi* daughter into gaol? — I did not want to put her in gaol —l wanted to break the marriage. WHEN ARRESTED. Detective Abbott deposed to arresting the male accused on a charge of ; making a false declaration. The wife, i in his presence, said : "'lt's not his fault, it's mine; I told him I was twenty-one." > This concluded the caso for the prosecution. MUST BE "WILFUL." Mr. Wilford addressed the jury, emphasising the fact that a statement to be a false declaration within the meaning of the Act had to be "wilfully" false. It was not so 'in the. present case. His Honour, in summing up, hud. stress on the same-point. "NOT GUILTY."' The jury retired at 12.45 p.m. and re. turned at 1.5 p.m. with a verdict of not guilty on both counts of the indie*. " ment. The prisoners were discharged.