THREATENED INTO MARRIAGE.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 April 1919, Page 7

THREATENED INTO MARRIAGE.

Remarkable details of the mr triage of a girl of sixteen to a lonely Irislii soldier were given at Highgate Police Court, when the girl-wife applied fat a summons. ; Her father said he took the soldiej} into .their home because lie wasi "lonely." After a time the man made overtures to the girl, with the resulf; that they were married. . * The girl now complained thatr iheß husband was uneducated and ill-mail* nered, and that he had threatened her* He could neither read nor write, andl the Setters she had from him were, written by another soldier.

In reply to a further question, the girl said she was now seventeen, but; at the time of her marriage was sixteen! and eight months. She gave the clergy-! man who married them her correct? age, but he entered her age as eighteen*

She agreed to marry the man because he had threatened to take her away

from home

They met in July, and were marriad. in September. The father said that the man in civil life was a miner in Lancashire. Until a few weeks ago he cle-verely concealed his faults, but now his true self had come out. and his wife found it impossible to live with him.

The magistrate asked the police td inquire into the girl's story.