MARRIED AT FOURTEEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 37, 13 February 1905, Page 5

MARRIED AT FOURTEEN.

ROMANTIC ACT OF A MAORI GIRL. ELOPES WITH HER SISTER'S SWEETHEART. Mr. Justice Edwards had a delicate little love affair to straighten out in the Auckland Supreme Court this morning. The prisoner at the bar was a quartercaste Maori youth named Ernest Martin, who was charged with abducting a Maori girl of 14 years, named Ngawai Tana. He pleaded guilty. According to his counsel Mr. Mahonv. the little affair occurred at- Matakohe', where Ernest was courting Ngawai's sister. In Ngawai's heart there grew up a reeling of fondness for this young man who was paying attention to her older sister, and the fondness was reflected in her behaviour towards him with such effect that he became fascinated. She put herself in his way so much that his afteetion for the older sister cooled, and when at last she suggested an elopement the transfer of his affections became complete. A time and place of meeting were agreed upon, and they met and started across country for a neighbouring native settlement. They were under the impression that there wa.s no reason why a girl who decided to run away with her lover j should not do so. and they hoped that when the storm of parental anger had subsided they would be ahle to marry and settle down in peace. Their castles in the air. however. Mere rudely shattered, their flight was discovered, and they were chased and overtaken, and brought back to Matakohe. Here the wouldbe bridegroom was charged be-, fore a Magistrate with abducting a girl under legal age. and he was com~i mated for trial. *ome ,] e j a y j n - th - j securing of bail caused him to bekept in I custody for some time, but when he was .finally released he immediately married jthe girl, with tho full consent of the [parents on both sidees. The marriage .was solemnised according to the rites jof the Methodist Church by a duly licensed minister. The accused voutb j had now become a member of the "girl's i family, and the couple had been living on tho property of the bride's father, who owned considerable property. The position of the case now was that the husband wa.s in Court as the accused man. and the wife as a possible witness against him. In view of the Maori customs with which the parties had been familiar, he was not astonished 'that there had probably been some laxity and ignorance of tlie law in the matter. The accused had assured him that when the girl suggested elopement and co-operated with him in that elopement, he had not the slightest idea that there was any law making it a criminal offence. Counsel therefore asked His Honor to allow a little sentiment to penetrate even into a Court of Law. so that these young people might begin their married life under favourable conditions. Any wrong done to tho girl had been righted in the honourable way. and he would suggest that the accused be released on a bond to come up for sentence if called on. or to keep the peace. He pointed iout, that the girl's appearance was not that of a child of 14 years, but of one much more mature. ! His Honor asked that, ihe girl should come forward that he might see her. 1 After His Honor had spoken to her. :the girl's father, Honi Tana, was oxj a mined on oath, and stated that he i consented to the marriage under pressure of the accused's parents. ; Neither the father, the native inter- ' preter. nor the native lay-preacher, who married the .young couple, could inform His Honor that marriage at 14 years was in accordance with Maori ideals of proper morality, and His Honor therefore deferred his decision till next Friday in order that the Rev. W. Gittos (suggested by Mr Mahonv) might be examined as Ito Maori customs.