BIGAMY CONFESSED.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13797, 31 October 1908, Page 4

BIGAMY CONFESSED.

ELIJAH TRASK BEFORE THE COURT. COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE. The socond act in a drama in which an unscrupulous scoundrel victimised two respectable young woiii«mi was tmioldecl in the Magistrate's Court this morning, before Mr. H. S. Fitzherbert, S.M. The principal character was Elijah Trask, who was charged with having committed bigaiuv at New Plymouth on July 21, 1906, by going through, a form of marriage with Catherine "Wells Kincaid, his first wife, Margaret Trask,' being then alive. Sergeant Haddrell appeared for the police, and Mr. Strang for accused. Sergeant Haddrell called his Worship's attention to section 403 of the Criminal Code. This section enabled ; him to produce a written confession by accused of his first marriage, and . other documents, without bringing witnesses from Victoria, where accused's * first wife resided. Shortly, the facts of the case were that on July 23, 1902, at Birregarrah, in Victoria, Trask married Miss Margaret Price. Two children were born of the marriage. After a time ho said he would come to New Zealand to make a home for i her, and she could rejoin him. He corresponded with her on several occasions, until as late as July 9, 1906, in most affectionate terms. When that last Fetter was written he was keeping company with" Miss Kincaid, to whom he was married on November 21. 1906. Mr. J. Terry, Deputy-Registrar of the Supreme Court, gave formal evidence that on July -I-,— 1908, in -the Supreme Court at New Plymouth, before Mr. Justice Edwards, Margaret Trask was granted «■ decree. ' nisi for the dissolution of hex? marriage with accused, on the grounds that bigamy and adultery had been committed by him. The accused was not present «t that case.- He produced t» certificate of the marriage of Elijah Trask and Margaret Price, at Birregarra. Victoria, on July 23, 1902, produced as an exhibit" in' the divorce proceedings, together with an, affidavit verifying it and stating that the papers were in order, as required by the law of Victoria. He also produced certificates, exhibited in the' same case, iOf the birth of- two children to Elijah Trask and Margaret Trask, and other exhibits of correTspdndenee from Trask to his first wife. Witness further produced a copy of the register of a marriage between Elijah' Henry Trask and Catherine Wells Xincaid, in the Primitive Methodist Church, New Plymouth,- on- November 21, 1906. A photograph of accused and. his first wife, put in at the divorce proceedings, was also produced. » , Accused admitted that iiiis photograph was one of himself and his wife. Catherine Wells Kincaid deposed that she now resided iii Auckland. In the years 1905-6 she was employed in the house of Mr. W. Jenkinson-, coachbuilder, New Plymouth. • She made the acquaintance of accused some time in 1906, about »'' twelvewton,th before she married him. She knew him as Elijah Henry Trask. He represented himself as a single man and paid his addresses to her. She was married to accused on November 21, 1906,~by-tn«f Rev. J. Nixon. Witness produced a copy of the register of the marriage, and stated that she was the Catherine Wells Kincaid mentioned in it, and that accused wa« the Henry Trask also mentioned Jherein. Mr. W % Jenkinson was" present' at the marriage. She lived with accused as his wife, first in New Plymouth and afterwards in Hawera. In March, 1907, at Haweri, a citation was served on her and on Trask in connection with divorce proceedings. When witness asked accused about the matter he said he had # a wife and two children in Austi\ilta, and that it was best known to i imself why he had left theni. He wanted her to promise to legally marry him after he had got a divorce from his first wife. She refused, and immediately went home to her mother, who lived in Auckland. After she had been some time with her mother Trask went to Auckland and saw her again. He again proposed that they should Set legally married after the divorce, ut she refuse/1, and she had not seen him nor heard of him again until the present time. One child had been born of her marriage, on August 25. 1907. William Jenkinson. coachbuilder. New Plymouth, identified accused as the man who had married Miss Kincaid. Accused was known to him as Henry Trask. Detective T. Boddam deposed that on the 14th inst. he saw the accusedin the New Plymouth prison, where he was on remand on the present charge. Accused said he wished to make a statement. After warning him that any statement he made must be-teoumi tary. so far as he was concerned, accused said he knew he was doing wrtWTg when he married Miss Kincaid, but he had clone it, and it could not be helped now. He also said he wished to give as littlo trouble as possible to anybody and get. the case over as quickly as he possibly could. Accused then made a statement, signed by himself, which witness produced. In this accused stated that in 1902. when he was a farmer at Beeac, Victoria, he married Miss Margaret Price, who lived with her sister and father at Mt. Jellibrand, Victoria, at Birregarah. He admitted all the circumstances detailed in the evidence. After making this statement accused said he had been living in Auckland, under the name of Stewart, while the divorce proceedings were in progress, and since that until his arrest, and had made no attempt to get away. To Mr. Strang: Accused had said at the prison, after making the confession, that he had taken the name of Stewart while in Auckland because he wished not to disgrace bis family. Trask had given no trouble since his arrest. . This completed the evidence for the police. Accused pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court at Auckland for sentence.