TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.

Evening Star, Issue 4082, 27 March 1876, Page 4

TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.

tniles from of a painfully criminal ,kind was brought up bn remand for bgaripg.pn the of March, 1876. When the" case was called, the court ■was cleared o£. everybody except thbbfflcers Of the law, counsel engaged, the reporters, the prisoner, and thb nfat witness, who-wasi the prosecutrix.;: The prisoner was young,? not bad4oohang,and apparentlyavery decent feUoyr; the a girl about riifieteen bi' tWenty/v-vWth a rather sweet and intelligent face, arid dark, captivating eyes. The. .eyidOibe which she. gave went to aubstintiate the charge against the prisoner. In cross-examination she admitted that, although she had. only known him a short time, her impression was that theiracquaintance would. culminate- inthe young man’s making pwpo&ds-df marriage->‘ Since the commission of the offence, such proposals, purporting to come from Him, had been made to her, but-she' had rfejectfed’them and had laid the,inf as.she; thought it right. and at luncheon time, and on the Court’s resumlearned counsel; for. the. proseoutidh • appliediorja remand till a future day, as the) evrdwcefcwhich die still had to adduce would* be of a new nature. The remand was granted, L and the prisoner Was let out on bail in two sureties, which were found without the least, difiiOMfy; The Surety papers had to be made out in thObffiOfe of the Registrar of' Births, Deaths, Jdpriiages,, and thither the two bondmen and the prisoner repaired. There the prosecutrix. found sitting iwith her and—novel writers hide yourdiminished heads 1-r-in less than half an hour that prosecutrix and that -prisoner were, at i their own request, united in the holy bonds i of wedlock by the Registrar there present. Verily, truth is stranger than fiction, and; here isa rOmahce ihreal life which will yifct with the best ever invented by novelist;pr ~ poet. : .-V.-

So much for the romantic sidp, , The. case came before the Invercargill Court on the 23rd inst., when the accused, Donald M'Kay, who was on remand on a charge of rape,' Surrendered thins bail.—Mr Harv!g|& whpLhad been engaged for the proseoaiisrai stated that he had been instructed t(J'’withdraw from the 'prosecution, as the accused had married the prosecutrix,—lnspector* Fox jsald he would . oppose the closing of the case, and, if Mr Harvey withdrew, he should feel it- to .be his duty to proceed with the prosecution.—TTia W or ship t Yes'; the case must now go on.—MBS * Wade, asmuch-as the ptoaecutrix (whose evidence, had'beeh taken in full oh the 22n,d) been 1 married to the prißouer, her depositions had become useless, and, she,having become his wife, could not, as a matter of English law, be used against him. Would it not be simply a waste of time to go on with the case ? -His Worship saidfhe must carry out his duties as. required by. the Act,—Mr Harvey remarked that there was oiic- phase of the case to which he would direct his Worship’s attention. ■ He could not bind the wife 'over to give evidence against her husband at the next crixniiial sittings of the Supreme Court,; neither could she be Sent to gaol meantime to em sure her attendance, —Mr Wade suggested leaving-the case as--it stood to the Crown Prosecutor, but Inspector Pbx said that ; he felt bound in dfity to lay all the evidence before the Magistrate.—Mr Wade characterised the proceeding as a solemn’farce. —Hia Worship'remarked that even it it were soothe ' case was a most extraordinary, pne, and he must carry out the provisions of the Act, and hear all the evidence.—Evidence was then t4kem, .IhAonly evidence to-the point was that of Mrs M‘Kay’s sister, who stated what Mra'M'Ksay/ then Rachel Bryant, told her of .the offence committed by, accused on the night' 1 of the .ls.th inst. The witness', Mrs Blondell, 'amarried sister of the young woman, deposed that she and her sister, when on the,.way home from Winton on the evening. pf : %e ls_th inst., met the accused, at Jack s s£W-xnill, and that he accompanied them homewards. When within a quarter! of a mile from her house, witness and pri sondr badn each other; ‘| Good night,and she went r pn,, leaving hpr sister and, prisoner tdgether. In'’about twenty Tninutes or half an hour after witness had reached home her sister entered the house, looking pale and; confused,- with her dress partially : disarranged, and her hair hanging abtfut her shoulders. When wit-ness-asked hter what was the matter—why she had been crying—-she stated, in reply, that the prisoner had committed the crime of which he watfl'noTfcaccused. His Worship said he would not commit the 1 accused unless he felt it to'be his bounded duty to do so j 'but ' the he hm oh his trial; but whether, the/paae .would, go further or not .he did: not know. Bail‘woMd be accepted in two sureties of L2s'each;— ‘ Southland Times?' j; V.’.U- : • '