ELOPEMENT, BIGANY, AND SWINDLING.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2696, 7 October 1871, Page 3

ELOPEMENT, BIGANY, AND SWINDLING.

The Southern Cross of the 11th September says : One of the most disgraceful cases that have over been reported in Auckland was the talk of the town on Saturday. A married man, who followed the occupation of sharebroker —and whose wife, a lady of most respectable family, at present rerides with her four little children at Panmuro—has married and eloped with another woman. On Tlmrsnay, it appears, he went through the form of marriage, having, we are informed, obtained the consent of the girl’s father, -who was at the Thames, by false representation. In company with his paramour he left Auckland for San Francisco in the Nevada. His rascality, however, did not rnd with the desertion of his wife and children. Afior hjs departure It was found that he had disposed of various parcels of shares entrusted to him, drawn th money, and decamped with the whole proceeds. Mr Stovin, in an advertisement elsewhere, states his loss at over L2OO, an I we hear there arc other sufferers to a large amount. The Evenin'/ Star of the 12.h gives the following particulais of the Auckland elopement case:— It affords us gr. at satisfaction to be able to exonerate the Lev. Dr Wallis from every blame in connection with the recent cenmony performed in Symonds street. It appears that, so far from Mr H. V. Stevens being intoxicated on the occasion, and being a reluctant party to the proceedings, he had come two' days before and made the appointment with Dr Wallis to come at nine on the forenoon of the 7th to Mr Paul's residence and 1 erform the c remony. On the clergyman proceeding to the house, after a few minutes’ conversation, it was found that no weddingring had been provided, and though there was m. mc;s.rity for such an instrument according to the form of marriage observed, Mr Stevens, who was perfectly sober and collected, and who acted the part of the kindly and considerate bridegroom to the life, insisted on proceeding down to town and purchasing' a ring. The party, which was a numerous one, waited till his' return in a cab, and the ceremony proceeded. The ug .inl declaration was made by Mr Herbert V, Stevens, that 'he was “Sydney Pope Stevens,” the person described in the Registrar’s certificate or license, and fliers was nothing whatever to convey the fain’est impression to the mind of the clergyman or the party assembled that the affair was otherwise. than strictly cn regale Mr H. V. .Hevens first applied for return tickets for his brother and his bride, who were contemplating, he said, a bridal tour. Subsequently, on the alleged grounds that the discount on a return ticket w as so small, sin.le tickets were procured. Mr H. V. §tCyeps being familiarly known to the agents of the Nevada and all their clerks, had a difficult game to play, and, being seen on board, he represented himself as merely waiting to see his brother off. The circumstance of Mr Sydney Pope Stevens residing at North Shore, and having left at five o’clock, no doubt prerente 1 an erJairdss'-ment which would have been embarrassing.