FULTON'S FOLLTY and KATIE'S KID.

NZ Truth, Issue 68, 6 October 1906, Page 6

FULTON'S FOLLTY and KATIE'S KID.

When fate threw Edward Fulton and Katie Barnard together it was guilty of a cruel action, as the intimacy of the pair ended unhappily, for it was a case of love m haste and repent at leisure, , to .vary an' .old saying. -The couple kept company for some time at Christchurch, and the unlawful baby arrived m due course. Fulton, who was employed m a local watchmaker's shop, didn't dispute paternity, and voluntarily agireed to pay- his lights -love the. customary, and highly necessary, 7s 6d a week, as well as. six quid to tlie lady who officiated m., bringing his little son into this cold, cruel; wor'/.. Well, he kept up his payments' for about elevem months- when he got out of 'work and- skipped t6 Napier, where he has relatives: '^Proceedings wereinstituted against " him by the girl who cared for _ him no longer and} looked; upon him, as y ;

A BASE DECEIVER; ; but he managed to indues , her to withdraw them. As Fulton hadn't paid Up for six weeks she again bluepapered him, and his excuse when before the ,Ohirstchurch Police Court was that be was -unable to get work at his trade. He admitted being the unfortunate father of the still more unfortunate illegitimate, m answer to Mr Leatham, who appeared for him, and said that he really hadn't been m constant employment for a year. When Mr Donnelly cross-ex-amined the man of tick and time it transpired that he hadn't paid the midwife, Mrs' Gill, the. £6, although a year had elapsed since the birth of the infant. This was "tick" -with a venge^noe. • He. said he was "owing it to her"— a very common practise these days ; "owing money is one of the easiest things on earth, if people will allow you to owe tham money, that is,. Fulton said he did contemplate leaving Christchurch, but he didn't know where he was going ; he wanted to get work. Bishop, , S.M. , made a Court order for the payment of that 7s 6d, and- also ordered him to find security m £100, or go up for six 1 months. Counsel was about to 'interpose- in this connection, but the Magistrate said it was of no use, he wouldn't < deviate from his usual practise y 'j-n regard-' tp v finding surety. , He had 'fpund'; that in' nearly every case where it was said, that security couldn't bp '.;' ; obtained, and that the map. would HAVE TO GO TO CHOKEY he came up with a bondsman all right to ' escape .experiencing the delights and luxuries of Lyttelton Gaol. In the present case he gave the defendant 48 hours m which to come up to scratch, and flirty, flyblown Fulton left the premises m a chastened spirit' m order to communioate with his relatives at Napier to see if one of 'em would stand Sam for him. . Christchurch seems to more than hold its own with any other big centre m the colony m regard to the production of illegitimates, and a well-known parson with whom the writer was chatting the other day bemoaned the awful depravity among young girls as disclosed by the Police Court and private sources, and prophesied m a melancholy manner that unless .parents exercised proper control over their virgins there would be a *big crop of "accidents" as a result of the exhibition. And no doubt there: will be.