CLEMENJ'S CLANDESTINE CHILD.

NZ Truth, Issue 109, 20 July 1907, Page 5

CLEMENT'S CLANDESTINE CHILD.

JANET McLEOD'S ILLICIT LOVE.

Clarice, Though Chased, Was Chaste.

THE SOLDIER AND HIS "SWEETHEART."

: A spicy affiliation case was heard at the Christchurch Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, before Mr Bishop, S.M/, m which the- parties came from Kaikoura (Blenheim). A buxom lass of somewhat attractive apl*arance named Janet McLeod asked Ihe Court for an order m her favor against 'Arthur Talbot Clements, a contractor, who is now resident at Flaxbourne, or thereabouts. The si", who was represented by Mr Doneliy, said that she had an illegitimate child and that the defendant was the father of it. He was a married man with five children, it appeared, but had acted the giddy goat with her. He used to go and take her home from church on Sundays and intercourse happened frequently. At her uncle's place improper conduct had happened: and after she left there. She never had immoral relations with any other man m her life. - Mr jHunt, who appeared' for the defendant, put some torrid questions to the complainant. She had been working as a general servant. It was quite true, she said, that he called on her m January or February, and told her that there were rumors about her condition, and that he was the father of the child. Didn't he ask you why you were blaming him ?— Yes. What did you say ?— He asked me if he was the father and I said l No. Bishop, S.M. : Why did you say that ? v You are charging him to-day with hem? the father.— Well, he is the father. Why did you tell Mm that he was not the father ? Think for a moment. The witness here hesitated and seemed to get confused. Do you understand what you are saying ? asked . the Magistrate. Mr Donnelly : SHE SEEMS STUPID, The S.M. : Yes, I think she is. She looks it. Witness : He asked me if I blamed him and I said "No." Why ?— I don't know. To' Mr Hunt the witness said that she was standing at the back door at the time and was with him for a bit. , Why did you run away from your father's house ?— I never did. Wasn't it through a man named Clarke ?— NoWasn't he found m your bedroom by your 'father ?— NoWasn't he chased out of your house by your father with very little clothes on ?— No, not that lam aware of- , Didn't you leave home the very next day ?— Yes. , Hadn't Clarke to get out through your bedroom window ? — No. He may have teen chased. Ihs S.M. : Why was he chased ?— I don't know. Counsel : Do you know a chap named Whisker ?— Yes. Have you been m the recreation ground with him ?— No. Nor m stables at the tack of an hotel ?— Never. ■ Haven't you been out with' men ?— Yes, but I have never carried on with them. You know a man named! Veitoh ?— I do. ' What were you turned out of his place for; wasn't it for acting indecently ?r~Not at all. ■ ' / And didn't Constable Clarke go round looking for you at George Smith's and ask -why you ran away from home ?— Never. Now, didn't you go out with plenty Kit young men on Saturday nights ? —No ; but at any rate I never carried on with them. Were you m the guard tent AT THE VOLUNTEER CAMP ? What were you doing there >?— U was with other visitors. Mr Donnelly : Why did you say that Clement was not ' the fatiher when you were talking to him ?— I was afraid of him. The next witness was John Smart, a fanner at Kaikoura, ' who said' that the girl McLeod used to act as a servaat for him. Clement, he said, had met him at the sale-yards^, and called Mm aside from the other men. He told him about the trouble he had got into and asked him if he had- heard about it. Witness replied m the affirmative. Clement wanted to know from him if be (witness) had sufficient influence with the girl to make her put it on to a single man, and his response was .that he hadn't sufficient influence to do that. Tim Clement wanted to know what could be done with Miss McLeod ; should she be sent to a Home ? Again witness said he didn't know, he wasn't accustomed to deal m such matters. However, he told Clement that it, was his place to try what he could do. In June of last year the couple were on his premises andi were \ery familiar. They sat together m Its kitchen. From what his little gir' |. O i(j him he went on to the veraid\ and beard Clement and McLeod l aliening and chaffine m the chaff htu.-e. The pair "kept company" for ii \uti% time to his knowledge, air though Clement was a married man. To Mr Hunt witness admitted that on one occasion the defendant was m uniform, and that it was on the trip through of Lord Plunket. The laii'-i'hinfr and chaffing may have happened Kh^n they were saying "Goodbye," but' they took' a long time to say "Good-bye," added the witness naively. a fterwards, when the defendant was ehn l r- (ri ed with being the cause of the phi's trouble he said he would fir Jit it out to the bitter end with her. AsV^d if he remembered a conversation as to certain people making up their minds as to who they were going to sue. the witness replied m the negative. He never had a conversation! Vith one Veitoh on the subject. Mrs Mary Jan* McLeod. mother of the girl, said Ihat she remembered her daughter being pregnant, m February. \?he -then wrote the defendant ?b'l !"•« turned up and saw her. She

asked him what he was going to do, and he suggested that the fatherhood) should be PUT ON TO A SINGLE MAN. He mentioned his own nephew, Chris. Clement. Also that he would pay money and help her and the g-irl too. Witness wouldn't agree .to any such course. Defendant then asked if he could see the girl himself and' an arrangement was made that he could see -her on the following night. Her daughter then said that it was defendant and nobody else, and she wouldn't hear of "Kit" Clement being made; the father. Clement said it would most likely break up his home ; "My God, I had no idea it would end up like that," he said. She told him he ouight to have known. Ho then said he would take the girl to Court and the lawyers' would bamboozle her. She was as obstinate as a pig and once she said a thing she would' stick to it. In reply to Counsel Hunt the lady said that defendant wasn't indignant with accused. Her daughter never ran away from home. This was the first she heard of it. Wasn't Clarke, alias Nugget, chased out of your house for being found m your daughter's bedroom ? — I have never heard it before. Hasn't he been m your house ?— Yes, he used t.o work with my husband. Did anytb'ody make any complaints about your daughter's conduct ?— Never. A six weeks' married lady, a blooming 'bride, so to speak, was next called. . Violet McGuinness said she used to be a Bellow-servant \ of the complainant, Miss McLeod, and she had seen Clements holding her on bis capacious knee m the kitchen. He always came into tTtet kitchen, amd she had met them out walking , together on several Saturday nights m Kaikoura. When Janet left of! coming to "the house after she left, he left abruptly also. John McGuinness, husband of last -witness also gave evidence. 1 The defendant denied the charge point blank. Etc said | that he had first heard a rumor m Kaikoura thai; the girl was m trouble and that he was associated with it. He called on her at Lauriston's with Christopher Clements, and asked her a/bout the business 1 The girl replied ttyat she wasn't pregnant, or that he had had anything to do with her. He said it was a nice rumor to get about the district about a married man, and she disclaimed responsibility. In regard to his conversation with Smart, the 'blacksmith, he mentioned the rumor, and told him that it wasn't true. Further, he told Smart that HE WOULD SPEND FIFTY QUID to prove that such was the case. He received a letter from Mrs McLeod, asking him what he was going to doabout the matter, and m a personal interview 'he indignantly denied toeing the father of the child. He asked to be faced with the girl, and this happened the next night. On being confronted with the girl there was another denial, and the girl admitted that she had said that she wasn't enceinte to him. He never • said that he wanted to put it on to a young man. He did remark, however, that he would only take charge of the child when a Court ordered him to do so so. Smart's yarn was, totally untrue. He never had intercourse with complainant m a chaff-shed or anywhere else, He had been m her company, but. nothing ever happemed between them. The defendant was cross-examined by Mr Donnelly, and denied that he ever said* he would help a single man if he would; assume responsibility for the youngster. Miss McLeod was never found sitting on his knee at any time, , nor had he ever carted the girl out unless she was m the company of someone else. Himself and his wife had visited McGuimness's place scores of times. They were relations ; that was why, the witness went on to say, that he had never asked his nephew, Kit Clements, to say he was the father ; nor did he offer him money to do so. The next witness to go into the box was Christopher Clements, nephew of the defendant, who detailed a conversation he had overheard between his uncle and the girl McLeod. He had taxed her with the subject matter of the rumor about town, and she' replied that he had nothing to do with her. Witness had seen the girl coming out of a stable at the back of an hotel with A CHAP NAMED WHISKER, who was a hotel employee. He believed that heused to trot her out at about that time. James Veitoh, a farmer, residing at Kaikoura, swore that the girl had been talked about for a couple of years, and that eventually, when things came to a crisis, it was said that the defendant would be picked upon as the father, he remarked that he would fight the thing to a finish. ,He had had a conversation with Smart about the matter, but what Smart said about the conversation wasn't correct. Miss McLeod stopped at witness's house for a fortnight, but he had to get rid of her. The S.M. : Why ? She used to come into my bedroom. Mr Donneilv : She was 16 years of age then ? Couldn't you keep her out ? No. • You wou-ld have to tie her up to keep her out ?— Yes, she was a very fast girl. This was all the evidence, and Mr Bishop said he didn't believe the de-. fence at all He made an order ad.lU'deting Clement the mitative father of the child : and that he pay 7/G a week, £6 6/ costs, and to find a surety of £100 that the amount will be paid.