A FARMER’S CONCEIT.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17410, 6 July 1928, Page 7

A FARMER’S CONCEIT.

FEW FINER-LOOKING MEN. LOVE MISSIVES TO TEACHER. SEQUEL IN POLICE COURT. • A young lady teacher' of Horsham Downs has for some time been pestered with the attentions of a young man named Leopold Hodgins, whose infatuation has led him to write letters to the girl, asking her hand in marriage. The young lady mentioned Hodgkins’ unwelcome attentions to a friend, one Reginald Pelham Chibnall, a young farm hand in the district, who walked over to I-lodkins’ farm one day and counselled him seriously to refrain from pestering the lady farther. An altercation followed and according to a statement in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court the other day, Chibnall demonstrated his indignation by throwing a couple of kerosene tins at him together with a can of milk. Later Hodgins, apparently having brooded over the insult, went over to the place where Chibnall worked, on vengeance bent, and insisted on fighting him. The result was that both the men were yesterday "afternoon charged before Mr S. L. Paterson, S.M., with fighting in a public place Mr J F. Strang, who appeared for Chibnall, described him as a very decent young man who had simply championed a young lady who was being pestered by Hodgins. Hodgins made himself obnoxious on other occasions. Counsel suggested, in fact, that he was slightly unbalanced. Counsel handed in a couple of letters written by Hodgins to the younglady in question in which the writer proposed marriage. In one of these he said he understood she “was willing,” but was only waiting to be asked. The reason he was anxious to marry her, he added, was because she

was so strong- and he had often admired the way she pushed her cycle along the road. When he learned she could swim across the Waikato River, he promptly said to himself, “'You will do me for a wife.” The letter goes on: ‘‘This little house is fit for any woman to live in,” and concludes with

an assurance to the young lady that “you won’t have to milk cows.” In a subset)uent letter several months later, Hodgins again renewed his offer. He also referred to a row he had had with a certain man. He had heard, he continued, that she had offered to marry him despite all his faults and failings and all the yarns she had heard about him. He had been told that she had stuck up for him when others were traducing him, and had

said: “I wouldn’t mind marrying him myself, but he will have to ask me first.” “When,” the letter continues,

“I heard that, I appreciated your offer and said, T will have you for my wife.’ It is hardly fair for you to turn me down now, after offering to marry mo now that you have got the chance? If the housekeeper" got on well with me for the past five years, you ought to be able to get on with me. You never saw me dressed up before you offered to marry me. I don’t think you need be ashamed to walk up the streets of Hamilton with me when I am dressed up, as there are not many finer looking men in Hamilton than me. I can’t do more than give you all I have in this world.”

The writer then proceeds to tell of his - wealth, and adds that he will be terribly , disappointed if the lady of his choice does not marry him, as he had, he said, told a lot of people that he and she were to be married. The missive concluded, with the statement. — ‘/You offered to marry me; now keep to your word, I am willing to have you.” The lady, however, apparently has other views on the subject. H:"s Worship dismissed the charge against Chibnall and fined Hodgins £1 and costs.