PRICE OF FRIENDSHIP?

NZ Truth, Issue 1152, 29 December 1927, Page 7

PRICE OF FRIENDSHIP?

Young Victor Anson's Love Affair

Now Has To Be Paid For

(Prom "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.)

WAS it his social position that hindered Victor Anson from marryy ing 19-year-old Rhoda Grace Parker, the girl who gave herself up in love to him, or was it that his infatuation for her had waned and a fickle fancy led him in other directions?

AT first he had promised to marry her, it was stated, but later

arrangements by letter to meet- her, the letters being handed to her brother-in-law for delivery.

changed his mind and ■ offered to help her with money. But that was not sufficient for Rhoda sft she applied to Magistrate Salmon in the Wellington. Court to have Victor Anson adjudged the father of her child.

Victor himself did not put in an appearance, but left the whole matter of denying paternity in the hands of Lawyer W. E. Leicester.

Although but employed as a farm hand at a -weekly wage, Victor is reputedly the son of well-to-do and wellconnected parents. Rhoda, the girl who is the mother of his child, is the daughter of the late licensee of the Rangiwahia Hotel.

Young Anson, no doubt with the object of gaining farming experience, took up manual work on a farm nearby. Rhoda told her. own story very clearly and connectedly ( under the guidance of Lawyer Alexander Dunn.

In relating to the bench the incidents which led up to her trouble, she said Victor was working for a sheepfarmer in the district. She had .known him for about two

years, but it was not till August, 1926, that she became friendly with him. He used to come

to the hotel to see her and they used to go for walks to the recreation grounds. Two or three times a week he used to visit ner. They became on very friendly terms and as she understood it, were keeping company with one another.

Intimacy took place between October and November of that year.

• Once with "Victor, she was sitting in the private sitting-room of the hotel with the lights out.

Her father came in and caught them together and said to Victor: "This is no good being in the dark ■with my daughter — cut it out and get out."

That was in January of this year after she had told defendant she was in a certain condition.

To her counsel, Rhoda said Victor asserted he would never come to the hotel again.

Counsel: Did you continue to see him? — Yes, he used to meet me at the pictures or else send me a letter asking me to meet him at certain places.

They did not go to the pictures, but left her brother-in-law and sister to go; they went for walks and returned about the time the pictures ended to make her parents believe they ha4 been there. Father disapproved of Anson.

Her child was born on August 28, 1927.

To her counsel, she said defendant did not deny anything when she told him of her trouble. Asked if -anyone had seen her with Anson, she stated that her brother-in-law had also caught the two of them together in the sitting-room of the hotel.

He wanted her to go away and promised to help

her with money. She left Rangiwahia some time about the end of March or April and went to a

sister's place at Eketahuna. Anson handed her a letter of introduction to a Lawyer Cooper in palmerston North who would pay her certain sums of money.

Counsel: Did he refer to any particular amount he would pay you? — He said he would give me £40. He was going to send it in a postal order, but then said people might find the money had come through his account for the purpose, so he handed it to his lawyer.

Eventually, said the girl. Lawyer Cooper had written that he had received the money from another source. In her own mind she was certain the money came from Anson.

Cooper never told her of this other "source" from whence came the money. After her return she met. Anson once and he was very annoyed because she had written to Cooper, saying that he (Cooper) had sent for him when he didn't send the money.

She had heard, about this time, that Victor was engaged to be

married, but he denied this when

she taxed him on the matter.

He also said "Mr. Cooper wanted to make a case of it, but he wouldn't."

Did he suggest that you had been carrying on with anyone else? — No.

Counsel: Did defendant at that conversation or at any other time deny he was the father of the child? — No.

On her retuVn to Eketahuna, she told counsel, slv€"received a further letter from Cooper enclosing £14/19/3, "being £15, less exchange." She stayed at Eketahuna till June when she came to Wellington where later her child was born.

Rhoda detailed occurrences -which happened during- February and March of this year. She continued to see "Victor Anson ami sometimes he made.

A Rural Romeo

Sweet Nineteen

Anson liad once told her that his father and mother would not approve of her as she was not in a good position. He said he had £3000 left to him when he turned 24 years of age.

To Lawyer Leicester,- Rhoda said that Anson was reputed in the district, apart from what he told her, to be of good family; was well connected and well-to-do. '

She admitted that other fellows came to the hotel with Anson, but the place was not an open house for boys. Anson sometimes played cards with her father and mother.

Counsel: He tells me it was quite * common for a crowd to play cards for drinks? — That is quite true.

Then why did he want you to sign a statement? — That was because he was afraid father would come down on him for enticing me away from home.

He didn't entice you away from home? — Yes, he did. He wanted me to go to keep it quiet and promised me money to go and fix things up.

You went to your sister's in Eketa.r huna? — Yes, but my people, did not know. They thought I was working somewhere.

He wanted you to sign a statement that he was not the father of the child? —Yes. .. N ,

He must have denied it then? — No, he did not.

Did he say he would help you? — ; Yes, afterwards, if it was kept quiet.

-,- Did he not tell you, when you told him of your trouble, that you should consults a solicitor, and gave you the letter of introduction for that purpose? — No, he did not.

; Cooper gave you a sympathetic hearing 1 ? — Yes.

; Would it be true, then, if Cooper says in his letter to Mr. Dunn that the money did not come from Anson?— No.

Cooper wrote in the letter that the money (£4O) did not come from Anson, but from someone who left explicit instructions that no names were to be used. ] Anson himself, she said, had never, actually paid over any money to her. She had later instructed her solicitor to seek maintenance. ..'.,

Counsel: Anson 'immediately repudiated all responsibility'. Don't you think that was a peculiar attitude to take up after having never denied the matter before?— He said if I ever took the matter to court he would defend it.

To the bench, Rhoda, . said she was nineteen years of age and during the time, she knew Anson was on affecV tionate terms with him.

Rhoda's brother-in-law gave evidence, concerning the time he came upon/ the couple in the sitting-room. He" had never seen her out with any other young men.

The whole thing, from defendant s point of view, is a . serious matter," said Lawyer Leicester when addressing- the. bench. "It was a matter which affected Wa whole future." : Mere opportunity

for misconduct was

not sufficient to establish paternity, he added. ■'

In his opinion there was absolutely no evidence before the court that Anson paid Miss Parker money. It did not come from him. Defendant was in the midst of shearing and the fact that he did not appear could not go against him. [

In giving his decision in the girl's favor, Magistrate Salmon said defendant's counsel had. argued the case well and said all there was to say. But the girl told an extremely straightforward story.

Concerning- the money which she had received, the solicitor had tried to cloak the source of the money, but there was no other possible source unless from the father and mother.

Anson's letters to her were not straightforward after he knew she was in a certain condition. There was not a single line of affection in them, and they invariably concluded with "yours, 1 * etc. True, they were headed, "Dear Rhoda." It appeared to him that Anson had foreseen things and all his actions were calculating. ;

He must make the order asked for, and fixed the maintenance for .the child at 15/- a week. He also al^dijved £10/10/- confinement expenses," arid, yv taking into consideration th,e- money ..'-• already paid the girl, £3 for past '.'$

maintenance

Victor Anson will also have to foot :^ a bill for witnesses' expenses Sfunning. A^i into £9/11/- and solicitor's -^fees^"'; £2/2/-. '*"-.-