A FAMILY AFFAIR

NZ Truth, Issue 984, 4 October 1924, Page 12

A FAMILY AFFAIR

And A Peace- At- Any-Price

Wife

Remarkable Story of a Woman's

Complaisance.

(From "Truth's" Christchurch Rep.) j Evidence of an extraordinary degree of moral nonchalance on the 1 part of a Rangiora family man was given m the Christchurch Magistrate's Court last week. In the course of a prosecution of a husband* and.wife on a charge of making a false declaration regarding a birth.registration, it was stated that the child m question belonged to the man's young step-daughter and that he was its father. The pair were George Albert Knight and Henrietta ISllena Knight, who were jointly charged before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., with having made a false statement to the Registrar ..of Births, Marriages and Deaths at Ranjgriora, m that they declared that Henrietta Ellena Knigut was the mother of a child, Cynthia Daphne Knight.Chief Detective T. Gibson prosecuted and Mr. M. J. Burns represented the accused. • Harold George Davis, Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths at Rangiora, produced the register showing the entry of the birth of a child, the name of the. mother being given -as HL E. Knight. The Registrar -General authorised the present prosecution. Detective, R. T. Kearton gave evidence that he and Detective Bickerdike interviewed Knight at his home on July 15, when accused said the birth was properly registered, he being the father of the child, and that his wife was its mother. On August 13 witness ir-.terviewed Mrs. Knight, who made the following, statement: "I am the wife -of George Albert Knight, whom I married jn 1913. I then had six children, and we were living at Clarkville. On October 22, 1921, my daughter, who was then IS years of age, gave birtti to a female child. Before we registered the birth I found out that. my husband, George Albert Knight, was the child's father. I asked him what we were going to do about it, and he said that we should take it for our own. I then went and x registered the birth at Rangiora, registering it as Daphne Cynthia Knight and signing my name as the mother_of it. I looked on myself as the mother of it, -as it was my husband's child, and because I was going to take it. I also wanted r.o [ shield my daughter. I have kept the , child ever since, and it looks upon me !as its mother. When registering it as my own I did -not- think that . I was doing anything wrong, as my husband was the father of it, and 'I thought that I had to take it as mine." The 1 mother of the child stated that she was a single woman, now 21. years o.f age, and living with her jnother anrl stepfather m St. Asaph Street, Christ■church. . She gave birth to a child at Clarkville m 1921, and it waa still living at home. with witness's mother. Knight, witness's stepfather, was the father of the child, but she did not discuss with him anything about the manner m which it was to be registered., On concluding her evidence, the girl asked the S.M. if he would order that her name be suppressed from publication. The Magistrate replied that he clirt not think the Press would use the name. ! The girl: What about my parents? The S.M. said that so far as the stepfather was concerned, he could hardly be expected to be shielded. Both accused, when charged, pleaded not guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Mr. Burns asked for bail, which was granted m one surety of £50 on her j own recognisance for the female accused, and m sureties totalling £400 for Knight, the Magistrate remarking that the case against the male accused was more serious than that against j his wife.