LAW REPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2116, 6 April 1914, Page 9

LAW REPORTS.

.SUPREME COURT, THE CUSTODY OF A GIRL, ■. RATHER STRANGE CASE. • His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) hoard an extraordinary case in tho Supreme Court oil Saturday morning. This was flu application by a mother to have lier daughter (aged 17 years) removed from the. house of a man who was her husbaiid a.ud the girl's stepfather. The girl only recent* ly arrived from Eagland. awl it was. stated (in proceedings for phintiff) that the man had formed an attachment for har. Tho mother accordingly applied { to the Court. Mr. A. Dunn, Who appeared to sup- I port the application, based his ease on the contention that -the girl was an "infant," because stwi was not twentyone years old. Mr. J. M. Dale, urged that the girl was not an "infant," and was her oiVn mistress, bccatise sbo was over sixteen years of age. That, he said, was the English law, and ho added that the Ne\v Zealand law was similar. His Honour disagreed with Mr. Dale, but reserved decision, Tho plaintiff in tho ca-ss> Was Mary Jano Dell, and the defendant Arthur Dell. Tho girl, who is the subject of tho application is Alice Gertnttte Dell. During tho hearing Mr. Dunn mouticned ; that proceedings for perjury might ariso out of the caso. SIX YEABS GAOL. Six years' imprisonment with hard labour is tho sentence of tho Court oil Potar Hembrey, 'a middle-aged seaman, who stated that ho was a Middlesex man, and whoso ciinm was a)} un* natural offence. His' Honour the Chief Justice pointed out thrit prisoner' had rendered himself liahio to a life sentence. ■ Hembrey assorted ,th.at he was drunk at the time, but His Honour disregarded tho excuse, and described the offence as a- heinous one,THE WANDEKRR. A youtlr named Charles Leonard Leamon Hankins appeared to be dealt: with for "tho offenco of- forgery and utteriug. He had received a cheque for £1 lis., but as ha owed £1 10s. for board ho had altered tho cheque to £2 lis. His Honour said that Banking's trouble was that ho had wandered from placo_ to place and did not remain steadily at some fixed employment-. He admitted Hankins to probation, -but mado hint understand that bis wanderings must) cease.