AN EX-NUN’S CASE.
SYDNEY AFFAIR RECALLED. REV. H. ELLIOTT MEETS THE NUN. “One of the most interesting episodes of my K Australian trip was my interview with Sister Ligonri (Miss Partridge),” said the Rev. Howard Elliott jin an address at the Empire Theatre. New Plymouth, last night, when he re- [ ferred to this case, which aroused much . interest last year. He said he found i Sister Ligouri most cordial in her greet- ’ iug and she talked freely about herself and her experiences in an interview lasting two hours and a half. “I was, of course, interested to know what she looked like,” the speaker continued, and he described Sister Ligouri as a slight woman of medium height, with rather thin-shaped features, but with a pair of grey eyes at once Irish and very beautiful, with a brogue that comes from the old isle, and with a voice that is full of music. “The thing that impressed me most,” he said, “was that during the whole two hours and a half she never moved. There was a picture of the disciplined nun.” Asked why she did not tell her i whole story in the proceedings against ; Bishop Dwyer, she said: “How could I with the evil eye of him upon me?”
“If that case were on to-day,” Sistier Ligouri told Mr. Elliott, “I would tell a lot different story than I did.” The speaker, however, blamed chiefly the men who conducted the case for allowing certain facts to be suppressed. The people to whose houses she escaped were not called as witnesses, because Miss Partridge would not speak certain things. Miss Partridge told the story of the kidnapping, in which her brother Joseph took a part. Thirty-five' men took part in all and secured Miss Partridge while she was walking home with some friends one night. She was taken to the house of a Catholic Justice of the Peace in a motor car. Her brother Joe wanted her to sign a statement to the effect that she wanted to go back to Ireland and that she was still a Catho.lic, etc. She signed the statement to please them, she 'aid. The next day she went out for a walk. They wanted her to go into the gardens, but she said she wanted to walk along the street. It was stated that had she gone into the gardens there was a fast motor 'boat waiting to take her up the Parramatta river to a prison. When Miss Partridge absolutely refused to go into the gardens the street was chosen, and there she achieved her object, for she was recognised by a man who had been on her defence committee. The latter went away and brought a policeman, and thus secured Miss Partridge’s release from her friends. “She may come to New Zealand next year,” said Mr. Elliott. “She is not a public woman, and it she comes she will only speaft to women in the interests of women in convents.” Miss Part; ridge had said, declared Mr. Elliott, that there were many women in the convents who desired to be released, but they did not have the opportunity. “There are 1321 women shut up in New Zealand,” he added, “and while we are not pressing to go the length of saying there should be no convents, there must be no convents in New Zealand that can hold a single woman a day longer than she wants to stop there.” In conclusion Mr. Elliott urged the peo-. pie to advocate the policy of Government inspection of convents and to keep this in view at the next general election.
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Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1922, Page 5
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605AN EX-NUN’S CASE. Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1922, Page 5
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