THE MATCHMAKER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 442, 25 August 1928, Page 27

THE MATCHMAKER

GIRL’S PATHETIC SEARCH FOR HUSBAND “MATES FOR EVERYONE” “If the allegations made in the I articles against Mr. Owen are 1 true, it is not only well that his i business should be damaged, but it is well perhaps that it should be closed down altogether.” This opinion was expressed by Mr. Justice Avory in summing up to a ' King’s Bench jury in the libel action brought by Mr. Thomas Owen, of j Sussex Street, Victoria, S.W., against Odhams Press, Ltd., proprietors of “John Bull,” and Mr. Sidney A. Moseley. Mr. T. Owen, editor of “The Matchmaker,” claimed damages for alleged libel from “John Bull,” and Mr. Sydney Moseley, who wrote the articles complained of. Mr. Owen said the articles suggested that he cheated his women clients. The defence was justification. Referring to “Miss X” in his address to the jury, Mr. Justice Avory said that, though she said she had been engaged twice, she was unable to produce an engagement ring. “You will not have failed to notice a curious incident at the beginning of this case,” his lordship said. “When Miss X was called as a witness it appeared necessary, not only that a solicitor, but that Mr. Owen himself should retire from the court to bring her here. “There is evidence through the case,” his lordship pointed out, “of her being in communication with Mr. Owen. I don’t know how it strikes you, but it may appear to you to be rather a pathetic picture that is represented by this young woman, who for three years past has been striving to find a husband. Public-House Lodger “Mr. Newman may be said to be Mr. Owen’s trump card, because Miss X became engaged to him. He was a man who was a lodger in a publichouse near Lincoln’s Inn Fields. He was a man, not who had a farm, but who was going to have a farm in Australia. “One would have thought that, before leaving his fiancee in the Old Country on his departure to the farm he ’was going to have, he would at least have bought her a 10s 6d ring, so that she should not forget him. "If Miss X had wanted to bring a breach "of promise action against Mr. Newman, she must have failed be-

cause she has no corroboration of her statement that she was engaged. “By an extraordinary coincidence, just before this trial, a man turns up at the office of the ‘Matchmaker* wanting a wife. Miss Xis introduced to this person—‘Mr. J. P. A. D.‘—and within a week is engaged to be married to him. What is Jje? Who is he? Where is he? We have not haa the advantage of seeing the man. “We don’t know whether Mr. J. P. A. D. has two sixpences to rub together. We don’t know that he is iu a position lawfully to marry. “Why has not Mr. J. P. A. D. been produced here in court to say whether there is any prospect of this young woman being at last relieved from the throes of her enforced spinsterhood.” Mate for Everyone After quoting from “The Matchmaker” the statement: “There is a mate for everyone somewhere,” Mr. Justice Avory remarked: “1 don’t know how they can reconcile that with the large number of women in this country, unless they are going to share a husband in the future.” The question the jury had to consider was whether this matrimonial business might, and probably did, result in illicit relations being promoted and established between men and young women. After reading a number of advertisements in "The Matchmaker,” Mr. Justice Avory added: “I suppose nobody with any knowledge of human nature, or what may be learned of it from history, will deny that there may be such a thing as purely platonic friendship, as it is called, between a I man and a women without any trace I of sensuality in iL “But what does a pure platonic friendship care for the question whether a woman’s eyes are dark or whether a man’s hair is curly, whether a man has ‘grey eyes that are sometimes blue,’ or whether a woman has ; a good figure or a full figure." After an absence of two hours the jury returned a verdict for “John Bull” and Mr. Moseley, and judgment I was entered accordingly.