THE TIMARU BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 4622, 21 December 1877, Page 2

THE TIMARU BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

In the case of M'Kinnon v. Loudon, to which brief reference was made in our telegraphic correspondence yesterday, Messrs Joynt and Hammersley appeared for the plaintiff, and Messrs White, Macgregor, and Stout for the defendant. The case occupied two days, and a great deil of interest was excited, it being the fust case of the kind heard in Timaru. The parties are residents in the southern part of the district, and are well known, Loudon being a momber of the Waimate County Council. The plaintiff in the course of her evidence said : I am aged twenty-eight years. I have known defendant for nine years, and have been on terms of familiarity. We both lived at Otaio. I was living at Mr Thompson's as servant, and defendant was working with my stepfather. We kept company for two or three months, and then defendant asked me to marry him. He said he cou'd not marry me before five years. I agreed by woid o mouth to marry him and wou'd wait for him. I was fond of him and loved him, and he said he loved me. We kept company for five years, and defendant xued to come to see me as an accepted lover. A twelvemonth last June, he again promised to marry me, at my mother's house, during the day time, between eight and ten o'clock. I then told him I could not wait for him any louger, and that I had already refused two or three offers for marriage, and the last person I rifled wa? John Johnston, lie then said 1 e would marry me in twelve months. I told Mm I would wait that time. About three months after that ho said that when he had put up a front to Irs house he would marry mc. I was at the cattle show in Timaru on the Ist November, 1576. He invited me to his house, but I said I di.l not know whether I should go or not, as I wanted to see Mrs Kerr. His sistir lived with him. I went there on Monday, November 6. His brother and sister, and Mr and Mrs Johnston, were there also. Had no conversation with defendant on that day as to mirriage. I did not stay that night at his house, but left between twelve and one that night to go : to Mrs Kerr's, about a mile from his place, j arriving there between three and four in the morning. [Witness here stated the circumstances under which she was seduced by defendant.] When he was told of my condition he said he would settle the matter with my brother. After I had been four mouths in that way he came to see me,

and he wanted doctor. I 1 and that I shbull i^^jjfiy -'mother what he said. He has never spoken me tiShce or been to my mother's house. -I iiave never done anything to my knowledgew prevent him mairyirg me, and have in his cbmpahy since. 1 iiever refuiwd-io marry i refused other offers account "of. my;-; engagement wi& de'dadant.—The •Reason why defendant did not marry her at the end of the fite years .was, as he .said, on account of his mother'ii death.