CHARGE OF BIGAMY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 223, 16 September 1873, Page 2

CHARGE OF BIGAMY.

Henry Joseph Morton, a medical practitioner, who not ong since commenced to practice in Nelson, was brought before the Magistrate's Court, at Sydney, on the 21 at Auguet, charged by Mr William Inr glis with having on the 24th of April last married his . daughter, Anna : Yipfaria

*nglis, he having been previously married: to one Mary Ann Stamforth, who was then alive. Both of the ladies interested were in Court during the examination. JWilliam Ingiis deposed : I am a .dealer, residing at 88, South Head-road.^ The prisoner before the court is the person, mentioned in my information. On the 24th of April last the prisoner (Dr Morton) was married to my daughter, Anna Victoria Inglis, by the Rev. Mr Bede^afc St James' Church, Sydney. I and my family were present. He and my daughter and his young sob, went away to Melbourne on the same day. He said the son was by his first wife, who was dead. He had been paying his addresses to my daughter for about a month before they were married. My daughter was then living at Mrs Winch's Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle. This is in prisoner's handwriting —(copy): " Newcastle, December 3,1872. Mrs Inglis, Sydney. Dear Madame, I write seeking your permission to pay my addresses to. your daughter, Mies Victoria Inglis. I may say that I love her. very dearly, and I em now at an age when an affection is sure and lasting, and not mere imagination. I shall ever endeavor to make her happiness my first thought, and be worthy of her love. I regret to say that I am not a rich man; far from it just now; but I have always been able, and have the means of doing well in the world ; and my earnest desire is to persevere, and I look forward to providing everything comfortable, and likely to enhance the future happiness of dear Victoria. If your reply is favorable, as I hope it may be, I shall leave here as soon as possible, and resume for myself; and I should esteem it a great pleasure if you would allow me to come and Bee you when I am in Sydney. I am, dear Madam, yours very- faithfully, John H. Morton, E.C.S.E." The letter was received at about the time it bears date. I saw the prisoner at my house several times between the date of that letter and the day of marriage, concerning the proposed uniou with my daughter. About two or three weeks after- my daughter's marriage with prisoner, a lady calling herself Mrs Morton, called on me and handed me the document produced. [This document was in the prisoner's handwriting, and written on similar paper to that on which he first wrote to Mrs Toglie. It is a " memorandum of agreement entered into this fourth day of March, 1872, between Dr H. J. Morton of the one part, and Mary Ann Morton of the other part — gamely, the said Dr Morton, and the aforesaid Mary Ann Morton his wife, mutually agree to separate, and mutually hold this agreement binding: In consideration thereof Dr Morton agrees to provide his wife, the aforesaid Mary Ann Morton with such lawful maintenance within his means, namely, at the rate of six pounds sterling per month, payable monthly or quarterly in advance, as the said Dr Morton thinks fit." Provision is then made for the care of their son Harold, aged 4 years, and "Mary Ann Morton agrees and hinds herself not to annoy or otherwise molest" her husband, so long as her maintenance money is regularly transmitted.^] The lady who gave roe this document, and who calls herself Mrs Morton, is now before the court. I believe the document to be in his handwriting. The nama of the boy was Harold; He was about 4 years old. . The evidence of the clergyman who performed the marriage ceremony, and of the detective who arrested Morton in New Zealand having been taken, prisoner was committed for trial at the next November sittings, bail being allowed, himself in £200, and two sureties of f 100 each.

At the request of a large mining firm at Newcastle, ft.S.W., specimens of coal from Mr Hart's mines at the Malvern Hills have been forwarded by the Veloculade, from Ly Helton, with a view to the starting of a company, should the trial be favorable. The Timaru Herald of September 23, aays:— The casualty which happened to the Dalium Tower—being dismasted when : abont 2000 miles from the Australian coast—affects, considerably many of onr , large importers here, the veßsel having on | board some £10,000 worth of goods for Timaru firms. Weetport has again suffered from the encroachments of the sea. On Sunday • week the high tide and strong wind combined flooded the town to a greater extent { than baa been known for a long time. The | earf washed right up to the doors of the houses in Kennedy-street, Bright-street and Queen-street were flooded to the j depth of two or three feet. Dr Thorpe's house was surrounded by a lagoon of sea water, and many cottage gardens were under water. The whole beach line is altered in appearance, owing to the force with which^the sea swept over it. " Diogenes " writes in the Grey River Argus : — There are men in high places in New Zealand who are perfect brutes in j regard to gallantry. The present Mayoress of Auckland has increased the population j of the Colony by four times three. She has twice added a unit of humanity to the New Zealand sum total whilst her husband has been occupying the honorable and onerous position of Chief Magistrate of the city of Auckland. Yet the churlish Council has not on either auspicious occasion presented her with that silver cradle which is the undoubted right of every lady who increases and multiplies daring the term of her epocse'fl mayoralty. And there were some members, miscalled " honorable," who a few days ago in the House of Representatives carped at the public's having had to buy the cradles in which the infantine cherubs, brought into the world by Lady Bowen's agency used 'ta be rocked to the realms ot Morpheus, and sneered at the Colony's having had to defray the expense of archery for the late Governor's wife. What next ? aye, in the name of decency, what ia the world next ? Why, forsooth, should the wife of her most excellent Majesty's Vicegerent have been asked to bear the cost of maternity like any vulgar woman who chooses to multiply the images of herself and husband? Archery is an ancient and respectable science, which won unfading laurels for England on such fields as Crecy and Agincourt. How monstrous then to Btickle over the payment of a few paltry pounds that the good-natured Governor's wife might play a mimic game at it i " But the age of chivalry is gone. That of Bophiats, economists, and calculators has succeeded," and, to alter slightly the laDguage of the immortal Edmund, the adoration ot the sex is extinguished for ever. The plan of two steamers always sailing j in company, as lessening the perils of ocean travel,, is being agitated, in the United States. It is claimed that where two steamers sail together the officers of one may be reasonably eupposed to detect and | correct the errors of the officers of the j other, ind if one ship become disabled, the j other will be near to render assistance ; and an American journal remarks that if the City of Boston had sailed with a conBort, perhaps all her passengers might j have been saved, ! The Man-eating Tiger of India has j been to the fore a good deal of late. This is not to be wondered at when it is remembered that the " man-eater " manages to massacre fully 10,000 human beings j every year. A good many suggestions for the extirpation of the brute have been thrown out. Mr Edward Wilson, of Melbourne, has recommended strychnine, as nsed for the destruction of the dingo, in Australia; but the people who profess to know all about the Indian tiger say that he likes hia food " hot and hot," and kills his own cattle, refusing carrion, so the strychnine idea has fallen through. The subject is, however, causing considerable discussion, the sportsmen declaring that the man-eater should not be destroyed; because of the sport he provides. Men who are subject to be eaten may hold different opinions. It was a happy thought for the Horti- j cultural Society ot Victoria sending a collection of apples to Vienna. They arrived in very good condition, only, a few having succumbed to the vicissitudes of the voyage. The question naturally crises, that if fruits can be sent so well to Vienna, how is it the dessert tables of the mail boats are so poorly furnished with j fruit ? Might not a large trade be estab- j •lished in fruits of temperate regions with our Eastern possessions? Apples of American growth furnish the dessert of the steamers up the Mediterranean, might sot apples of Victorian or Taemanian growth do duty in the same way as far as Egypt? The question, of . course, is a small one as regards the supply of these steamers, but it becomes one of vast importance when it is considered that the markets of the East are open to such a trade. The large fruit growers in the colonies should look to this. A correspondent (unmarried) suggests that Solomon's wisdom was due to the fact that he had seven hundred wives whom he consulted on all occasions.