NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 142, 26 November 1884, Page 2

NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.

A remarkable breach of promise case is at present ; before ,the Melbourne Supreme Court. In August last Mrs ''Catherine Egden, described as a widow, ; -sued.; A.lfred James Homer for breach of promise of marriage, and obtained a yerdic); for £300. A 'rule was subsequently granted - -at the instance of ; ; def endant ■ for a new, trial^ and on the [rule coroming up for hearing on the 3rd inst.tiis counsel stated that s^nce the trial a miner named Charles Ricketts had been found who was prepared to swear that the plaintiff was his' wife. He married herin 1863.' They afterwards l^ft Victoria' and went tp New Zealand. Early ; m 1867 she left him arid returned to Victoria with a person named Louis Egden." In answer to this storythe plaintiff repudiates allknowledge L of Ricketts, and says that she was mar* rjed to Louis Alfred Egden m 1871, at' St." , Malachite* ■''. Chanel * Belfast. They afterwards went to ; Victoria, and ...then, to New Zealand. Her husband, died. in Auckland, iv 1871. ; „ . , , ■ In 1878 thereh died tn th,e state .ol New York; ,a certain, CoJouel.D wight, who hab giveu.rise to a sort of roraapce' of life insurauce,' The ' Colonel had insured for an aggregate sum of £48,000 m a great number of offices ; but soon after his death , doubts were aroused as to whether he . had. committed suicide.; Some of the companies paid, the Equitable of i New' York paying. £10,000.. ; Others naade a compromise, while thirteen positively, refused to pay .at" .all,, and have joined together to. resist ; 'the ; suits" a^ainst'i them. Hitherto the der fence bas rested on the theory of suicide ; but should this fail, one company intends tf>i;tak© : ,t^e, ground thatth* Qor : lohialis fltill livjng, aud t^at the body I submitted to medical, experts, some of i wfto.'n aver that' it was that of a person who had died from strangulation, was pot Colonel Dwight's. So many mar- j ve'lbiis , questions' of mistaken 'identity are on record that this line of defence ! is not without prospects: ;o£. success..] The- case excites extraordinary interest