CLAUDE'S CUPID-CAPERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 214, 31 July 1909, Page 7

CLAUDE'S CUPID-CAPERS.

A Honeymoort that was Missed.

Claude Spencer Hunter is a big, upstanding,, lusty young butcher" of only nineteen years. Whether the good red, juicy meat he doubtless- feeds on is a contributing cause" or not has not been debated, but' he is certainly of a warm, full-blooded habit and quite a different cut of human joint from the average anaemic vegetarian or fasting faddist. Claude was capitulated to Cupid, and as a consequence" finds Himself corrfered m the familiar, age-oldi fashion. Now 1 , Hunter seems to be a decent",- straightforward young- fellow, and offered to do the- right I thing and marry the girl, when she complained of the embarrassing position m which she found herself as a result of their too rosy, and radiant rambles. But he is : under age, and his pater definitely and emphatically refused to give his consent, let alone" his blessing. Therefore the wedding bells had no more chance of ringing than had Curfew on that much-re-cited night. - This was unfortunate, no doiib't'. Anyhow, instead of I3EIN.G WELL AND TRULY SPLICED whilst the voice breathed o'er the scene, Claude was suddenly arrested and brought before the Beak m Auckland last week. The charge against him was that being the father of ihe unborn child" of Janet Maude Barker, he was about to leave the country without s making provision for the maintenance of aforesaid expected infant. Mr A. L. Denniston, formerly associate to his- uncle, Mr Justice Denniston, made his debut as a member of the local Costs brigade. He appeared lor' plaintiff and handled his material m promising fashion. Bilr Jerry Lundon defended, and was very wrath- over his cli-. ent's arrest. He stated that Hunter; was m partnership as a working but--cher, and had not the ghost of art ideaof quitting this peerless Pearl of the' Pacific. Whilst the young man was grafts ing at his block and up. to his eyes m gore, so to speak,, he was grabbed' by acop and boobed, which Jerry reckoned was by no means a fair thing. Of course, he was not growling about the "John" ; the lattef had" to dohis dooiy, but it was the issue of a warrant that flabbergasted Lundon. Counsel for defendant explained that when the girl complained of being m "a certain condition," defendant would then have agreed to marry her, but his father absolutely forbade the marriage— HE BANNED THE BANNS, m fact. Then, because defendant would 'not agree to go away to New Plymouth or the Thames, make a false declaration r.s fo bis ago, and get married illegally and unknown to his father, they had him

arrested. "We cannot admfE paternity," 'concluded counsel. .Defendant went into the box and made the following' statement : "On June 21 plaintiff came and told trie she was m trouble. Believing her statement that I was responsible; .1 ,wa;s perfectly willing to marry .her. Her sister called and I wanted to send her to the Registrar's : office to get the certificate, but my father would not consent! I was ; flieri given the alternative of getting married without my father's consent, or being arrested. It was plaintiff 's sister who made the arrangement. She suggested that wo. should go to New Plymouth and get married. I declined, and she then advised me to go with plaintiff to the Thames, stay three days and get married on the quiet. I declined', and the next day I was arrested at my shop at Khyber Pass. I never had any intention whatever 7 of' evading nvf responsibility or leaving Auckland.", Cross-examined, he said he did notad^ tiiib paternity; The' question" of paternity being disputed,. Beak' Kettle said h& would hear evidence on that point; Mr Lundon asked for an adjournment to enable him to produce witnesses. Case hung up for? a week; as requested.