HIS DUSKY BRIDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 85, 27 August 1912, Page 7

HIS DUSKY BRIDE.

AN AUOKLANDER'S ROMANCE.

Auckland, August 23,

A romantic story was recently published in the Auckland papers of the. marriage of a young Aucklander with an island princess. . The dusky maiden had just completed her education at a Wanganui college, and was spending a brief holiday in Auckland prior to returning to Fiji, there to enter a mesalliance with one of her own race. To this proposed marriage the island chieftainess was no willing party, and a romantic love episode during her brief stay in Auckland presented a way out of the difficulty. There was a youth, the son of a wellknown Auckland resident, and a member of the staff of a leading merchant, wfoo, like the lady herself, waß at that ideal age when the years known as "'teens" have just been left 'behind. The glamor of romance which surrounded the affair and the desire to aid beauty in distress may have assisted in a hur-riedly-formed decision, but, at any rate, they were married on the morning of the little princess' departure for her island home. It was then arranged that the bridegroom should follow in a month or two, so soon as he could complete arrangement for his departure from Auckland.

It was not till the young man ultimately reached Suva that the second chapter in the romance was revealed. On arrival at Fiji all efforts to locate his "bride were without avail. Anxious and weary weeks followed, and now at last comes news that the "bride has been spirited off to a far-away island right off the beaten track, known as Taviuni. A solemn warning has also reached the youthful husband that if he dares to .■follow his bride then ill betide him. It is understood that the intervention of the British authorities is being sought.