MARRIED IN HASTE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1602, 20 November 1912, Page 6

MARRIED IN HASTE.

A ONE-DAtf COURTSHIP. , A somewhat unusual story was told tO his Honour Mr. Justice Cooper at the Auckland Supreme Court on. Saturday ;by '' Joseph Walters, who presented a petition for divorce ,on the grounds- of. desertion. • • Walters said that during a 1 visit to, Auckland in 1905 he had, called; at,a registry office in search of a wife. •He w v as introduced the same day to 1 a .woman who expressed her readiness to marry him, and the next day they were' ' duly married. They had lived togethei for only three mouths, and prior to the hearing of the petition that, day .they had been separated lor seven years. They had known each other only half a daj prior to their marriage. After the marriage they had lived together at witness'? farm; but respondent had not seemed ai all attached to farm life, and had com' plained of the dullness of it all; despite, witness's endeavours, to provide enjoyment for her. .-About threo months, after the marriage respondent had gone awiiy and had not returned. Witness had met her later at a boardinghouse in Waiukn, about three miles from his. farm, and as she did not want to return he had given her .£B. She had on subsequent occasions applied for money, but witness, had informed her that while he could give her a homo ho was unable to provido'her with • cash. Respondent had later been living at Port Chalmers. , ■' His Honour granted a decree nisi to be i made absolute, at tha expiry of .three months. He commented on the foolishness of experiments by which people, after four or five hours acquaintance, contracted alliances which were meant to last a lifetime. In the present ciiso it was possible that if a longer acquaintance had previously existed the' marriage would never have taken place, for while botn parties were ovidently respectable people, they were apparently' not suited to oaeh other. It seemed to him that the wife would have shown more care in .buying a dress and the husband would have boou more careful in taking a rervant. . Mr. J. R. Reed, K.C. (who appearfd for the petitioner): The matter was just like, buying a horse or cow. _ His Honour: That is the-position ex- . aotly. .