UNUSUAL BIGAMY CASE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 117, 11 February 1919, Page 5

UNUSUAL BIGAMY CASE

MAOEI CUSTOM. By Telegraph—Press Association Auckland, February 10. Circumstances. of an unusual nature were mentioned in the case of Thomas Savage, a Maori, who appeared at the Supreme Court 011 a. charge of bigamy. Counsel said that the. prisoner had married a Maori girl at the Thames, hut she left him after four days. Accompanied ! iby the police lie'called at her mother's j place, and' endeavoured to get..her to reI turn, hut she refused, and he went away with the idea that she. was no longer his wife according to Maori custom. He went back to. the front 'frhere he had .' already served. In England, he met a white jfirl, and applied to the military authorities for permission to marry her: They told him he would have to wait six •months while they made inauiries in New Zealand. This he did, having in the meantime explained his position. At the end of the period he again applied for permission to marry, and this was wanted on condition that he made the usual allotment. His Honour said that apparently the second marriage was contracted in good faith. A fine of would be imposed to cover the cost of the prosecution, six months' being allowed in which to pay it. .