DISAPPEARANCE OF A BRIDEGROOM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7246, 21 May 1884, Page 4 (Supplement)

DISAPPEARANCE OF A BRIDEGROOM.

A casts of most thoroughly unprincipled conduct on the part of a bridegroom is reported as having occurred at Wellington on Wednesday, April 23. Some time ago a young man who_ has been employed as a cleric in an office in Wellington, became actjunintGd. wifcli tlic daughter of a much respected settler in the city. After a short time he began to pay her marked attention, and finally proposed to her, and was accepted. It is stated that he then represented that in addition to the income from his appointment, he was possessed of considerable landed property in London, and that .£II,OOO had been left to him as a legacy. Everything appeared to go on all right, and in due course the wedding was fixed to take place at the parents’ house at nine o’clock yesterday morning. The bridegroom, it is said, explained'to the young lady and her parents that immediately after the wedding he intended that they should leave for Melbourne, en route for England, to see auout his “ property,” and ho requested his father-in-law to endorse a bill for ,£4OO to provide the necessary funds, but this the father declined to do. Every preparation, however, for the journey was made by the younglady, her boxes being carefully packed with ever 1 * requisite for a long voyage. The young man also explained that he had arrangedforaclergymanatthe hour named, that he had engaged a number of cabs for the occasion, and had secured a passage by the Wanaka, leaving for the South in the afternoon. According to our information, he also actually got labels and addressed the lady’s boxes for the projected voyage. Yesterday morning a wedding breakfast was duly provided, and the guests arrived at the house, but when the appointed hour came, there was no appearance of the cabs, the clergyman, or bridegroom. When half-past ten arrived, and still no sign of these indispensable adjuncts was visible, the suspicions of some of the lady’s friends became aroused, and they proceeded to make investigations. On enquiry at the office where the man had been employed, they found that the only information to be gleaned was that he had been dismissed from his appointment, and, on going to the shipping office, they found no tickets had been taken out, as alleged, and the party at once broke up. It is believed that the bridegroom left here by steamboat on Monday. _____________