CHARGE OF BIGAMY AN AUCKLAND WOMAN BEFORE A SYDNEY COURT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 353, 23 March 1889, Page 6

CHARGE OF BIGAMY AN AUCKLAND WOMAN BEFORE A SYDNEY COURT.

At the Water Police Court on the 14th instant, before Mr G. W. F. Addison, S.M., a respectable-looking woman named Harriet Covsfcon again appeared in answer to a cha\ge of having' committed bigamy. The information of Peter Corston, of No. 169, Castlereagh-street, Sydney, set forth that on the 18th April, 1863, at Auckland, New Zealand, one Harriet .Heed did marry the &aid informant, and that the said Hamet Corston, nee Heed, while she was so manied, did, on the 21st day of July, 1886, at Sydney, mairy William Gieon Hibble, the said Peter Corston being then alive. Mr Jones appeared for the prosecution ; Mr \V. Robeitt. sen., for the defence. At the pievious hearing of the case evidence for the prosecution was given by Detectivo Greaves, Peter Corston, and Ilev. Joseph Baniei. For the defence Mr Roberts called Mary Gough and Henrietta Reynolds (a daughter of Mis Corston). ErnebC Corston (son of the accused} said he knew Mr Hibble ; in March, 1886, witness was living with his mother in Auckland. Recollected liibble coming to his mother's house at about that date ; Hibble was staying at the Star Hotel then. Hibble called on Sunday morning, and asked witness if Mrs Corston lived there, and requested to be allowed to see her ; witness paid she was ill, and could no_> see him; he then said, *'Go and tell her an old friend had called to see her." Hibblo would not give his name ; 'ater on his j mother left her room, camedown the sittingloom, and saw that it was Mr Hibble who had called. Hibble visited the house several tunes, and on one occa&ion he asked witness." mother to go tor a drive ; she contented, and they went for a drive ; that was on a Tuesday ; on the following Wednesday Hibble and his son left for Sydney ; in the July following the Corston family sailed for Sydney, Hibble having sent Mrs Corston £50 before they left. Hibble met them on their arrival in Sydney, and took them to an hotel in York-street. Coni tinuing, the witness conoboiated the greater portion of the evidence given by Mis Gough at the previous sitting. Witness heard Hibblc tell his mother that he had seen an account of the death of Corston in the paper ; that was prior to their marriage : hismobherandHibble'livedin various places after their marriage ; shortly afterwards witness's mother and his sister went to New Zealand to look after some property ; while they were in New Zealand Hibble went to Melbourne ; Hibble and witness met Mrs Coiston and her daughter at the wharf on their return, and they again lived at Rushcutter Bay ; subsequently they separated, and Mrs Corston lived in Victoria-street, where she kept a boarding-house ; sho was harassed by repeated visits fiom Hibble, and on one I occasion she threatened to " horsewhip him if he came there again." Henrietta Reynolds, daughter of the accused (recalled), said that Hibblo called at her mother's house some time ago ; Mrs Corston and he had a conversation, in the course of which her mother as sod him v» hy he was persecuting her (witness) through Mr Keynolds ; Hibblo replied, "I have nothing to do with her, bub (shaking his head at Mrs Corston) I would do seven years for you ;" witness was nob married then, bub she was about to be married to Mr Reynolds* son. Harriet Corsbon deposed that she was married to Mr Hibble, as already stated in evidence ; at the time she married Hibble sho believed from representations made to her that her former husband was dead ; a man named William Harketh called ab her shop in Auckland ; she was winding up her business ab bhis time ; she subsequently managed a millinery business ab Ponsonby, NowZealand,atasalaryof £3 per week ; when hecalledab her shopHarketh asked her if Mrs P. L. Covgton was there ; witness icplied

that she was'the woman : he then' told her he was sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and said that her husband had met with an accident and was dead ; this upset her very much ; she had always anticipated the sudden death of her husband, as he had a brother who committed suicide ; on leaving Auckland in October, 1884, 'he said, " If things did not mend with him ] he would take the same journey as his brother ;" her hu&band was a good man in every respect but for the fact that he gave way to drink ; dunk was the cause of ali their separations ; she asked Harketh what the accident was by which her husband had met his death ; he said he only just heard of his death when he left Sydney and could tell her nothing further ; she could obtain no further information and believed the man's statement to be truo ; she did not see Harketh agnin ; Hibble also made representations to her regarding the death of her hu&band ; that was before she martied him ; when sho arrived in Sydney, Uibble Paid, "Now what about Corston V" witness replied, "That is what I came over to ascoitam about, I cannot tell you any more than 1 have written/ had written to Hibble and told him that she had heard Coreton was dead. ) She kept nibble's replies to her letters, but they were stolen from her after she had married him ; Hibble told her shortly after she landed that " she need not trouble any further, as he had read that Corston was drowned in Apollo Bay, Melbourne, and that Mrs Gough and his man (Smith) had seen the same in the papei." Having heard of her husband's death while &he was in Auckland, she ielb satisfied with Hibble's statement ; to verity the truth of the report of her husband's decease, she told Hibblo she was anxious for several reasons to obtain the certificate of hia death; he replied, "Very few people trouble about that ; become my wife, I will protect you for life;" witness asked him for a week to consider the matter, but heurged something about the " plauder of Sydney ;" on the following day he pressed her to become his wile, and she said she would get married on the next day; Hibble thereupon produced a marriage license which he had obtained betore she had decided to marry him ; they were married on the 21st July, 1886, and they went to Mis Goughs at Granville the same evening ; in the course ot conversation Hibble said to I Mrs Gough, "You saw the report of Corston's death in the papers, did you not?'' Mrs Gough replied, " No, Willie, you said you would bring the paper, but you never did." Hibble laughed, but said nothing ; at the time witness was manied to Hibble she was in a position to make her own living : she learnt the millinery business in London years ago; there was no necessity for her to marry Hibble. She first knew Hibble was a '• J.F." when she saw him in Auckland. He used to visit her at Auckland when she had a millinery business. She had known Hibble and his wife when they were in troublesome 20 years ago. When Hibble visited her in Auckland he talked about his position in Sydney ; he said he was a magistrate in receipt of £600 a-year. Hibble left Auckland tor N.5..W../ and when she heard of the death of her husband she wrote to him (Hibble) asking for information about her husband ; Hibble sent kind replies to her, but those letters had been stolen from her alter she married him. At this stage of the proceedings the further hearing of the case was postponed till Friday.