DISTRICT COURT

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8076, 11 December 1906, Page 2

DISTRICT COURT

HA.Mir/I'ON—TUESDAY. (IS fore His Honour District Judge Kettle.) ALLEGED FALSE DECLARATION. A Maori uauidd Ji .no Paho was charged wth uiiiki••(» a falde etatn.ment to the ftegiatrar of Bidhs, Deaths, and Marriages •vt lluut.y oo October lioth last, to authorise his marriage wilh Marateri Wicihania, liy deilariog th»t the uirl was of full age, whereas she was on.y 15. Acoused, who was represented by Mr II T. Uilliea (instructed by Messrs Dufour and Bias, Auckland) pleaded not guilty. The Hon J. A. Tole, Crown prosecutor, conducted the case for the prosecution. The following jury was empanelled: W. F. Mason (foreman), W. D. Laxon, H. Livingstoae, A. McDonald, J. Harwood, J. Ingram, H. J. Saulbrey, G. Parr, J. Teddy, P. A. Caappell, D. Williamson and A. T. F. '.V heeler. Mr W. A. Graham acted as interpreter.

John S. Eeid, Registrar at Huntly, said ; bat on October 25; hj, accused came to bis lllce to obtain alioeoEe to marry Marateri. Witness found no difficulty in making him understand English. Accused said he was » bachelor, that the girl's a K -e was 21, and that she had married bufore in Maori ashion. Witness wired down to the Registrar-General, asking whether the Maori ceremony constituted a legal tmrriage, and the reply was "No." lie therefore entered the girl as a spinster. Witn93s granted a certificate authorising the marriage, and a week later acoused and the girl were married by him. Accused ;ave his name as Hone Wirihana, and the girl's as Marama.

Croas-exammed: The prisoner spoke English well enough to understand the meaning of the word "spinster." Accue 1 did not use the phrase " domestic iutiebl" in the entry relating to the occupation of the female. The N'ative said she was working at home. The fact that the Maori nade a cross instead of signing his name nude witness doubt whether he could read. Witness did not icnow, nor did he worry whether the Maori understood all the phrases in the declaration. He really thought the girl was over 21; he had the man's statement that she wa?.

To Mr Tole: He took great pains over that marriage, as it was his first. To His Honor: There were four witaessee, porters at the station, where the ceremony took plaoe. He was statioumastec at Huntly. He did not ask the jirl her age. There was no interpreter present at any stage of the negotiations. Mame, mother of the girl, disposed that ilaratua Teri was 15. Her daughter hid lived with her all her life. About a month before the marriage witness told tione Faho, at Taupiri, that she would not allow him to marry her daughter on iccount of her youth, and that she had someone else in her mind's eye as a prospective son-in-law. When the girl was 16. witness and ber husband would have con ient-d to Marama marrying the " other man." She told aocused that her daughter was too young for marriage, but did not say how old. [Left sitting.]