AN ANGLO-GERMAN MATTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1001, 1 February 1912, Page 4

AN ANGLO-GERMAN MATTER.

MAGISTRATE’S STRONG

COMMENT

A woman named Iriue Bates, who said she was employed in a clothing factory, at Auckland the other day, brought a suit for maintenance against a young German sailor, who she declared was the father of her child. The defendant denied any knowledge of the plaintiff, except that he had met her at a party. Since then he had left New Zealand and gone back to Germany, “put in” the two years’ service in the German Navy, at Kiel, required of him, returned to the Dominion, and lived here twelve months before be was approached by plaintiff or anyone on her behalf, or before he knew anything about the birth of the child.

Mr Kettle, S.M., in dismissing the information, remarked that the case was one of the most extraordinary that had ever come before him. He was quite accustomed to palpably perjured evidence every day of the week almost, but here he had the evidence of the complainant and her sister against the testimony of one man, and be was by no means satisfied with the evidence for the plaintiff. Moreover, she had gone to a Magistrate and obtained a warrant for the defendant’s arrest, which was apparently quite an unnecessary proceeding. The man was subjected to an indignity which would have been bad enough if he were a British subject. He was a foreigner and here in New Zealand foreigners were not dealt with in this fashion for the man had been arrested without any just cause being shown, and upon the false statements that he was about to leave New Zealand, to which he had voluntarily returned offer completing his service in the German Navy. His Worship could not believe that the evidence given by the plaintiff and her sister was true.

He dismissed the information, and asked the police .to take the matter in hand, as he had no doubt gross perjury had been committed.