HIS STORY

NZ Truth, Issue 1142, 20 October 1927, Page 5

HIS STORY

Magistrate To Think It Over

<From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Rep.) When George Stambridge rode his motor-cycle along Lambton Quay and blew the horn opposite the Kelburn car stop, he was thinking of the traffic— not of two girls on the pavement. BUT the girls had different ideas; they waved to him and Stam"lrridge, who is- not the man to miss an opportunity, was soon on the pavement talking to them. That, at any rate, is how Stambridge described the beginnings of his affair twith Olive Lewis to Magistrate Salmon 5n the Wellington Magistrate's Court 'When the girl asked for an affiliation order against him. Nothing had been further from his mind than the intention to pick up the girl, he said. And he had not a high opinion of Olive, for he declared that he had seen lier on the back of other motor-cycles eince their meeting. She was a waitress in a restaurant and he had been going there for his meals. It was in the restaurant that he had eeen her again. And he had, he admitted, asked her to go out on the pillion of his motor-cycle. She had refused once or twice, but finally had gone out with him, when misconduct took place. That, so far as he was concerned, was the whole story. His denial of paternity rested on the fact that after the girl had been medically examined the medical evidence did not tally with certain dates she had given him. Evidently she had been, out with some other man later, he alleged. • Olive appeared very little in the case, which took three separate days of the magistrate's time before it concluded. She did not know anything of where they had gone when she went riding with Stambridge. It was "somewhere on the Hutt Road." When she had discovered what was going to happen, she had gone with her mother to see the young man and after a little pressure he had admitted everything and had offered her money — £30 or £40, she said.

Stambridge Hesitates

He had also suggested that she should see a doctor. This much Stambridge conceded. He had thought it possible that their little jaunt had ended in trouble for Olive and "had wanted to do the decent thing." But after reviewing the position and learning what his doctor had to say, he had decided that he was not responsible. He had not seen Olive for a month after this episode. "Why didn't you see her?" demanded Magistrate Salmon. - George looked blank. "I didn't want to," he volunteered finally. "Stambridge," said Magistrate Salmon severely, "after what had taken place, you say that you made.no other attempt to see her for a month. Do you expect me to believe that?" George hesitated and at last explained that he had probably made an attempt to get Olive to come out, but that she had not come and he had given up the idea. The case was rendered more interesting by the fact that two doctors, foremost authorities in Wellington, were in disagreement as to the age of Olive's baby. Confessing the difficulty of assigning dates, Dr. Harcourt Arthur stated that <ho had been asked to examine Olive by her solicitor and had been giv.en no information because an independent judgment was required. She had been so inaccurate in her answers that finally he had decided to ask her nothing. Magistrate Salmon knitted his brow over the matter for a while and then decided to think it over. niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimi)