BOY AND GIRL MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17337, 8 December 1919, Page 9

BOY AND GIRL MARRIAGE.

FALSE DECLARATION MADE. POSSIBILITY OF PROBATION. Having pleaded guilty in the Police Court to making a false declaration regarding his own age and that of a girl of i 5 years, in order to obtain a marriage certificate, Edgar George Brown (Mr. Hall Kkelton) appeared before Mr. Justice Cooper for sentence at the Supreme Court on Saturday morning. The prisoner, who is only 17 years of age, had stated in the lower court that I he had enlisted with the Australian forces j at the age of 13 years, and served as a bugler. He was wounded and discharged, and re-enlisted with the New Zeals-nd forces, but did not reach the front. He was employed as an orderly in military hospitals at Trentham and Auckland. Mr. Justice Cooper remarked that the probation officer's report was not favourable. Counsel submitted that this was so only so far as the prisoner had represented his military services as having been more important than had actually been the case. Mr. Justice Cooper said that was not so. He had withheld information from the police, and had made two false declarations.

Mr. Hall Skelton said he had been instructed by the parents of the girl to appear. The idea of the youth, who had been likely to be sent away from Auckland, was that he should marry the girl, but that they should remain apart for the next three or four years, save, their money in the meantime, and then commence life together. The- parents had found that the youth had been loyal to this undertaking, and were now prepared to look favourably upon Brown, and to take care of the girl until suc.h time as the married lifo might begin. He suggested that to send Brown to pool would injure both parties. Mr. Justice Cooper remanded the prisoner until this morning, in order that the probation officer might be present. Hp also suggested that sureties might be found in case it were possible to admit the prisoner to probation, remarking that he did not wish to send him to gaol if it could be avoided.