SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 814, 21 November 1878, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

[FKOM OUK OWN <vtKKKHFONDENT.] DUNEDIN. November 21. Captain John M'Lean has been appointed Union Company's ship husbaud, stationed at AVilliamstown. WELLINGTON. Novembor'2l. The following South Island cases were, heard in the Divorce Court yetorday : Diu-by v. Digby and Alexander. Mr. Chapman seated that he had received a tolegram Blntin,' that respondent and co-respondent h:\(l l>i n served with due rotice. Ho asked for a fit'tlu.-r adjournment until affidavit of service could come up from Chmtehurch. The ad .■irnmont was granted.—Jeffrey v. .lell'rcy, Murphv, Kvans. and others. Tins was an pplicatioit for a decree «i«'m:ule by Mr. Tr vers. The ease was heard at Chri&tchu'rcli 'iul'oro A ouri is point of law was raised. Neither ruspon -nt nor co-respondents pleaded, and the <iuo tion was whether, under such cireuuistau ;os, there was anything for the Jury

to decide. If not, the evidence taken before them went for nothing, and their lindi g was useless. It was finally decided to take the judge's notes as evidence, putting the tinding of the jury on one side. Mr. Justice Johnston suggested that in future in cases of this nature to avoid the expense of bringing witnesses to Wellington to appear before a full Court, evidence must be taken by commission. All the Judges agreed that it would be desirable to give a single Judge greater power to receive evidence in divorce cases. The petitioner, a wheelwright, married the respondent at Falmouth, England, in August, 1874. They immediately left for New Zealand on board the Geraldine. There the respondent became intimate with Murphy, one of the seamen. On their arrival in the Colony, she promised reformation, but when the petitioner left home at her instigation to find work, Murphy visited her. She subsequently became a barmaid at the Criterion Hotel, Christchurch, and afterwards lived at Timaru with a storekeeper named Evans, passing as his wife. A decree ni-i was granted.