CRUISER WEDDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23123, 23 August 1938, Page 14

CRUISER WEDDING

OFFICER AND BRIDE OFFICIAL COMPLICATION A FORTUNATE ENDING [from our own correspondent] MELBOURNE, August 17 How a wedding oil a cruiser caused complications ■which wore settled mathematically was revealed by tho Federal Attorney-General's department in Melbourne this week. While the Australian squadron was exercising off the south-eastern coast of Australia early this year an officer of one of the cruisers was married to a Now South Wales girl, aged 17 years. The ceremony took place on hoard the ship. Alter the couple had left on their honeymoon the clergyman who had performed the ceremony landed at Jervis Bay in the Federal Territory and sent the registration papers to the registrar of marriages at Canberra. A few days later the bride and bridegroom received a letter from the registrar informing them that their marriage was invalid on two counts —that the bride, being a minor, had not obtained statutory consent to her marriage within the Territory, and that the ofiieiating clergyman was not licensed to perform marriages within the Territory. Inquiries revealed that all the iormalities required by the law of New South Wales had been observed, but the assumption that the cruiser " af j in the territorial waters of the federal Territory at the time of the ceremony was held to have voided them. Fortunately for the peace of mind ol the couple, an officer of the AttorneyGeneral s department thought that it would be worth while to inquire into the exact position of the cruiser when the ceremony was performed. Ihe boundary between the waters of the Federal * Territory and of New South Wales north of Jervis Bay was accurately determined, and when the ship s commander was consulted it was found that the cruiser had been just outside the Federal boundary at the time. The wedding was thus shown to be valid according to the laws of New South Wales, in which it was performed. Officers of the AttorneyGeneral's department heaved a sigh of relief, but they are no doubt still wondering what they would have done it the cruiser had drifted into the l'ederal matrimonial jurisdiction before the ceremony had been completed.

STARVING IN A CAVE IDENTITY ESTABLISHED CONSTABLE'S DISCOVERY RECENT VISIT TO DOMINION [from OUR OWN CO tt HES pox dent] SYDNEY, August 19 A cloakroom ticket enabled identification to be made of the man who, taken starving from a cave near Manly at the week-end, died, in hospital soon afterward. He was Ronald Gibson, aged 39, a member of a family well known in the Henty, New South Wales, district. A shirt in his possession boro the mark of a Wellington store, and it was thought that the man might have been a New Zealander, but it now appears that the shirt was bought during a visit to New Zealand about three months ago. Gibson made a number of visits to New Zealand during shearing seasons. Constable Steiner, of Manly, was responsible for the identification. Seeking a clue, ho had returned to the cave several times since Gibson was found on Saturday. On Tuesday he returned again and, poking in the farthest corner with a pole, found a purse under debris. In the purse was a cloakroom ticket from the Manly Wharf, bearing Gibson's name and the date, Juno 20. Steiner recovered the suitcase, which contained clothing, photographs taken on his New Zealand tour, and a notebook of addresses. One of the addresses was that of the relative who was able to identify the body. "I last saw him a few weeks ago, when he had dinner with us." she said. Wo did not know him well. Ho was religious and reserved, and a bacholor." llow long Gibson was in the cave where ho was found in a badly emaciated condition will probably never be known. Police have also been unable to ascertain why the man went to the cave, since he had sufficient money to live comfortably. Gibson's parents, who aro prosperous, formerly had a grazing property at Hentv. After his return from his last New Zealand trip he brought his mother to Sydney for a visit, and since her return to Henty his movements aro a complete mystery to his relatives. The only explanation tlioy can suggest is that, as a result of a nervous breakdown some time ago, ho might havo suffered a lapse of memory while walking through the bush and found his way to the cave.

CHAINED BY THE LEGS HOSPITAL ALLEGATION SISTER SENT FOR TRIAL [from OUlt OWN correspondent] MELBOURNE, August 17 Evidence that two women patients hud been chained by the legs was given in the Caul (it-Id Court this week, when Sister Marion McDonald, proprietress of Kahlyn private hospital, Caulfield, appeared on two charges of having taken charge of persons deemed to bo insano. The Director o'C Mental Hygiene, Dr. J. P. Catarinicli, who visited New Zealand last year to study the Dominion's methods of treatment and housing of the mentally afflicted, gave evidence that ho went to the private hospital on March 22. There he found a woman patient shackled by one leg to the end of a bed. After a conversation with her ho formed tlio opinion that she was insane. Dr. Catarinicli said that another woman patient whom ho saw on a cane couch in the garden of the hospital had her legs shackled together by a chain. One of the legs was bruised. The woman was able to hobblo only about six inches at each step. Ho decided that slio also was insane. The chairman of tlio bench, Mr. J Mooney, J.P., ordered that the names of the patients and their relatives should not bo published, and the patients were referred to as Miss A and Miss B. A sister of Miss A. gave evidence that she believed that Miss A. was treated kindly and well at the hospital. Tho shackles were a humane way of stopping her from wandering away. Tho members of the family were opposed to llio patient being certified as insane and being sent to a Government institution, as they believed that she would recover. A sister of IMiss B also gave evidence that she was satisfied with tho care tliat had been given to tho patient. As a nurse sho thought that there was no cruelty, but kindness, in her sister "being restrained from wandering away. Sister McDonald was • committed for trial.