AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1425, 22 June 1899, Page 43

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

AUCKLAND, Friday. At the Police Court to-day, before Mr T. Hutchison, S.M., Mary Dinah Pearson sued John Henry Pearson for maintenance. The case revealed an extraordinary state of affairs. It transpired from the evidence of defendant that complainant had been married three times, and when she married Pearson her first husband was still living. Pearson himself had been {ireviously married, and he stated he thieved his first wife was living when he married “Mary Dinah.” Pearson and his wife were living together on a farm at Whangarei for five or six years, and about eight years ago she left him. t and went to reside in Australia. She returned to Auckland eighteen months ago,

and sued him for maintenance in tho Magistrate’s Court at Whangarei. The Magistrate dismissed the summons on ■‘he grounds of Pearson’s first wife living when he married the complainant. Pearson told Mr Hutchison he had no means of any description, and was unable to contribute anything towards the support of complainant. It further transpired from Pearson’s evidence that he and complainant came out from London together, and that they then went to Whangarei and took up land under the Homesteads Selection Act. Pearson had applied for a Crown grant in his own name, but owing to representations made by complainant the Crown Land Board decided to do nothing until the parties had settled their differences. Mary Dinah Pearson said siic was married to Pearson about eighteen years ago. He had never supported her since he came to the colony. They bad 210 acres of land at Whangarei, owned jointly by witness and defendant and dangher. There had been a lot of trouble over it ■with the Crown Land Board. She pert in an application for the land, and Pearson put a caveat in. There was kauri timber on tlie property which was valued at £550. She had been sewing for her living, but her sight was failing her. Pearson never would work; he left it to witness and her daughter to improve the Whangarei property. Pearson was her third husband. Rodgers, her second husband, was killed in a railway collision ; and Vickers, her first husband, who led a fast life, went to America and never came back. She believed when the Crown grant for the land was issued it would be for the benefit of all. Mr Hutchison said he could not make an order, as no proof of the defendant having means had been shown.