CANNOT EVADE HIS RESPONSIBILITY

NZ Truth, Issue 1180, 12 July 1928, Page 1

CANNOT EVADE HIS RESPONSIBILITY

- .;.■ -. _. ■ :._ (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) ■.MOT • satisfied with the decision .of Magistrate Salmon, when, some , six months ago, he adjudged him the father of Rhpda Grace Parker's child, Victor Anson took his troubles to a higher tribunal. ■■'■'■ .Recently m the Wellington Supreme Court he appealed to Judge Smith ..-■ to reverse the magistrate's edict. . ; Vln the lower court respondent said she first found herself m trouble on December 20. When she told Anson he did not deny anything and at first promised to marry her,. later saying he wasn't m a position to do so. He promised her money, saying he would give her £40, which . .. would be paid through a. Lawyer Cooper, of Palmerston North. ' .-The ground of the appeal before Judge Smith was based on the belief that the magistrate's decision was erroneous m point of law. The. whole matter as argued before his honor centred m whether or ;• not the money paid to Rhoda by Lawyer Cooper had come from Anson. Appellant, who had been working m the district as a farm hand, ;: ' had given the girl a letter of introduction to Lawyer Cooper, which she presented when she left her home m Rangiwahia. It had been stated that the mbney : she received from a source other than Anson, : but Lawyer Cooper had paid, her £10 before this statement was made. - ; ' It was submitted by counsel fop appellant, Lawyers H. F. O'Leary ■ and W| E. Leicester, -tha't-^there was' no corroborative evidence to con- ' nect Anson with the payments of the money by Lawyer Cooper or his '.firm. Lawyer A.. Dunn, for respondent, thought otherwise. * In his honor's opinion^ ,there, was sufficient . corrqboration of the ; girl's story in' the correspondence." She had stated that it was a condition of the payment of th^ money that she leave home. This she ■" . had done. ■ ■ :\. .'. ■. -'"■'■■- ."!,■ '■ ■'• :"• ■ . '. - .. ' ' -. . The letter m which Lawyer Cooper stated that he had been able to make arrangements for the girlthrough "another source" plainly indicated that there" was a previously existing source known to both parties. The only reasonable- inference was that this source must be Anson, and the paynierit of the £10 must be attributed to him. If that were so, it was plain that it was contributed m response to appeals for help while the girl was. away from her own home during. the time of her 'trouble. "In niy opinion," said his honor, "this evidence from the correspondence written by Lawyer Cooper clearly amounts .■..-to corroboration of the girl's story m a material particular. "The magistrate found that whatever: might have been the immediate source of the money, the original source was. Anson, and this is • apparently what he meant when he says- 'There was only one possible source from which the money could have come . .'.'" His honor upheld the magistrate's decision and dismissed the appeal With costs and disbursements. f '