GIVING AWAY A WIFE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 304, 14 April 1877, Page 4

GIVING AWAY A WIFE.

An amusing alTair took place in a beerhouse at Bedford, near Leigh, on Sunday evening, a titan named Josh Hindley, fireman at a coUtery, having deliberately made a present of his wife to one of his companions. Hind ley, it appears, is a young man of about twenty-two, his wife, a prepossessing-looking woman, who works as a weaver at a mill, being about nineteen, and there is a child a year old, issue of marriage. The wife is spoken of by the neighbours as a Well-conducted person, but the husband has frequently been heard to express regret at being married, and in the Millstone beerhouse, on the night stated, he ottered to make a present of her to a single young fellow named Peter Hayes, a moulder. A long preliminary discussion as to the terms of the transfer ensued, both men, it said those who were present, being sober. At length the arrangements were completed, which were that Hayes should have the wife, together with the household furniture in Thomasstreet. besides two guns, the pigeon-cots and pigeons, and a sum of ."is. At closing time Hindley t ;»»k Hayes to his wife at home, duly introduced him to her as her new husband, and immediately left the place, where Hayes remained for the night. When Hindley handed over Ids wife to Hayes he signed a paper continuing the presentation of his wife to a friend. Mrs. Hindley readily consented to the transfer.