AN UNUSUAL CASE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 57, 8 March 1923, Page 11

AN UNUSUAL CASE

TWO YOUNG BIGAMISTS

GIRL, FIRST MARRIED EMPLOYER.

(BI TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) '.! AUCKLAND. 7th March,

The. circumstances under which bigamy was committed by a young couple, as described by counsel for the defence at the Supreme Court to-day, were somewhat unusual. The bigamists were Lilian Camish Clark,. o£ Aberdeen, a girl aged 23, and Albert Saunders, aged 24, formerly a steward on the Otarama.

Mr. Matthews eaid the girl had been motherless since she. was seven, and her father was killed in the war. When she was about fifteen years old, a New Zealand soldier became acquainted with her, and on his return to the Dominion a platonic friendship was kept UP by means of correspondence. In the end he advanced £50 to bring the girl out as a domestic servant to work on a farm in the Wairarapa, and his proposi* tion was that if he did not marry her lie would be a father or brother to her. On the voyage out the girl and Saunders foil in love with each other, and became engaged. The girl went to Wellington to meet her employer, the ex-soldier, who, to her disgust and annoyanee l kissed her when he met her. There could not be any question of love be» tween them, continued Mr. Matthews, for they had not seen each other for seven years. He put her into lodgings, and pestered her with his attentions, finally telling her she could not go to his farm at Carterton unless she married him. Thus she was induced to wed him three days after arriving in New Ze&? land. As related in the. lower Court, Saunders met, the girl in Wellington, her husband having gone, to the country to arrange for a sister, to return for the girl.. The girl declared she was desperately miserable and unhappy, and" unless Saunders took her away she would drown herself. She was stranded, in New Zealand, and had the burden of "thed3so debt, which probably partly accounjiefl for her marrying her employer. The- following day she came to Auckland with,Saunders, and went through a form of njjfrriage. Mr. Matthews said both the gn-] and man were decent, and it would be a, great pity if either had to start life here both as immigrants and gaol-birds. . '

His Honour agreed that the circumstances were unusual, but tho offence was a serious one. The girl, who probably hadi had an experience which would be a warning to her, was placed on probation, and Saunders sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment.