THE WELLINGTON BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1020, 21 October 1882, Page 3

THE WELLINGTON BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

The following is a condensation of the report in the Wellington Post of the case in which Harriet Swiney, a Wellington shop girl, sued W. J. Leybourne, a civil servant for £2OO damages owing to his having failed to fulfil his promise of marriage : Harriet Swiney deposed that she remembered last Prince of Wales’ Birthday, when she first met the defendant at a picnic at Island Bay, held in connection with the Church of Christ. She had no particular Church, but wont first to one and then to the other, and got a little good out of all. The defendant was a Wesleyan. The defendant introduced himself to her. They were playing a game called ‘JollyMiller.’ The defendant took hold of her arm, and said her brother had promised to introduce him. He gave her tea and cakes and went home with her. He could be exceedingly pleasant sometimes. During the following month she met him continually at his request. Before she went to Palmerston North he gave her a watch and chain as an engagement present. Ho thought a watch would be more useful to her in business than a ring. Hia first letter to her expressed an opinion that being sea-sick would do her good. He added that since her departuri he felt sad and lonely, and but for the consolation be had received from another young lady ho would have drowned himself. He had asked her Heavenly Father to comfort her. He promised her ‘ Some nice, long, deep, sincere, and loving kisses and glances, full of the richest stingo ; called her ‘ his precious one,’ and signed himself ‘Your spoony Willie.’ She answered, quoting Burns—

“ Dear as is thy form to mo. Still dearer is thy mind.”

Also Moore, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare. The reply was dated from * Bachelor’s Hall, Nairn-street,’ and he addressed her as ‘ Dear Zukey.’ Zukey was a word he coined himself, she supposed. He afterwards called her * Zukey, Zukey.’ In his letter he told her that h« had put himself on a diet of porridge, peas, and barley, and felt much better since he had left off eating meat. The letter last referred to contained some religious advice to her, said ‘ you are inexpressibly dear, my darling/ mentioned some lines in which ‘wedding morn ’ rhymed with ‘ glorious dawn,’ called her his ‘ beloved Zukey,’ and referred to the probable price of her wedding dress. She replied, addressing him as ‘My dear Spoony.’ That was her own terra for him. Told him she must see him again at Easter, for she wanted once more to see ‘ those loving eyes ’ which usod to look so lovingly into hers. Quoted ‘JWhom the Lord has joined together let no man put asunder/ and signed herself, ‘ Your loving and silly Zukey, alias Harriet,’ He advised her to sleep well, or she would regret it. She described the Palmerston North parson as a gentleman with a fair beard, who ‘walked rather lame, with a nice voice.’ Defendant said he never paid attention to any young lady uuless his intentions were honorable. Excusing himself for his behaviour to another young lady, he said he could not marry her because she had such a long nose. He asked her to ‘ pour oil on his troubled waters/ and hoped they would soon have a quiet wedding. She replied he might do a little flirting to kill time, and told him she saw ‘ those nice, candid eyes of his looking into hers as iu days gone by/ She also wrote—

“ Oh! to be nothing, nothing, Sitting in my arm-chair, Teazing and kissing Spoony, And pulling his nice brown hair.”

She destroyed a letter she received from him, as the contents were so severe she could not keep it in her possession. In reply, she wrote on March 11th, 1882, saying that she felt ‘ as if her life and soul’had been taken from her. On the 15th March the defendant wrote to her. He denied that he had allowed any one else to ‘steal his heart,’ and stated that he had not walked with a female for weeks, that he always got rid of one girl before he took on with another. He called her an ‘excitable, good-natured, ill-tempered darling,’ went on to say that his ‘ heart did not go out to her as it did,’ and that he was well, £ and so was the cat.’ She replied to him on paper with some printed lines on the top. The poetry expressed her feelings. The letter commenced ‘My own Sweet William.’ He replied addressing her as *My Cheap Young Duck,’ and told her that until he had seen her he could not say who would be his lawful wedded wife. In describing a tea meeting, he referred to a lady who ‘spoonied away with him at a fine rate,’ while two others had a ‘ regular fight’ to settle which of them should sit next him. He said he had ‘ a small bit of a flirt’ with another young lady, and expressed an opinion that the people who saw him that night would think that ‘ Harriet’s young man was smart enough.’ He said he hoped she would not get diptheria, a disease then prevalent in the district, as if she did it would go hard with her, as she

was ‘far too fond of flesh meat, which caused an inflammatory stats of body easily pierced and made to suffer.’ He wrote ‘ Your photo’ is here, but I take no delight in looking at it.’ He told her he had lately came serosa a volume of Social Science, and gare her a resume of it in

his letter. He gave certain reasons why their marrriage should be hastened. On March 30 she wrote to him assuring him of her love and constancy. The defendant's reply was contained in a letter of 36 pages and on the 20th of April she came down to Wellington and he told her he was a married man, When they met again he said he was not a married man, and invited her to go to a ‘tea-fight.’ His manner was very affectionate. They had buns, sandwiches, and tarts together. (Laughter.) There was not much opportunity for making love there, but they managed to have a sly glance or two at each other. (Renewed laughter.) In the true love feast she believed the gas was put out, but it was not put out on this occasion. Going home they met defendant’s mother in the street, He said to hi? mother ‘ You see it takes me to do these things ; 1 told you I would bring her round.’ Sue was 27 years old. On one occasion—while at hia house, he became very angry with her for wiping up with a towel some hop-beer he had spilled on the carpet — the towel would bo worth about 2d or 3d. Subsequently he proposed she should go to Sydney to procure a husband. She imagined this was a joke, and said she was sorry she had not gone when the rush was. On the 26th of June, not hearing fro/n him, she wrote making an appointment for that evening. He then told her ‘it was all over.’ He asked her to take his kind advice and get more religion into her and, curb her temper. She replied that even he was not perfection, and both could do with a little more religion if it came to that. Cross-examined : The date of the marriage was fixed for 7th September. Defendant professed to be a Good Templar. She admitted having told him she was once insolent to Mr Holliday. She had never said ‘ D Helliday.’ She might however, have said ‘ D the men.’ She wasvery exasperated with defendant’s conduct at the moment. She denied ever having said to Mrs Thow that she congratulated herself as she was clear of such a cranky fool as Leybourne. She might have told her that when she went to Christchurch before the engagement was broken off that Mr Green, M.H.R.. a minister of the sospel, was a passenger by the same steamer. She denied, however, saying there was a minister of the Crown on board, and that she had fallen in love with him.

The evidence of Miss Swiney’s two brothers having been taken, the defendant, Win. John Leybourne, gave evidence as follows :

Wm. John Leybourne, deposed that he was a clerk in the Audit Office, at a salary of £165 a year. Before that he got 10s a day. He described how he met the plaintiff while playing ‘The Jolly Miller, and said that up to the time of her going to Palmerston North there was no express agreement as to marrying. The clock at the house where she lived did not keep good time, and as he was passing a sale one day where a watch was going very cheap, he bought it for her. (Laughter.) He gave her the watch as he did not care to be kept hanging about . At her request he bought her a chain to match. When she left for Palmerston North he had doubts about the propriety of her writing to him, as they had had many tiffs. She told him she had been flirting for five years in Wellington, but that none of the young men were fools enough to marry her. She told him she had been keeping company with him until she could get some one better. She promised to mend her ways, and they agreed to write to each other. He remembered her return from Palmerston North. She said she had come to get him to retract what he had written, but he told her that he was disgusted with her conduct, and meant what he said. She said she had not intended to make him write and ask her to have him. He said he was quite disgusted, and asked her to leave the house, but she would not do so until she got a definite answer. He went out for two or three hours, and came back and tried every means to get rid of her except by pushing her. He then asked her if she knew he was a married man. He thought she might see there was no necessity for him having two wives. Later on she agreed to take some occupation, and to be content with the house he lived in.

Mr Allen : What did you say then ? Witness ; I said I would put her three months on trial. (Loud laughter.) Mr Allen : Was that arranged !

Witness said it was, He did not know how to get quit of her without that arrangement. She ran after him, (Laughter.) They met at a tea meeting the day after she came back from Palmerston. He told her as §lie was an orphan and a smart girl he would give her another chance. (Laughter.) She behaved very well for about a week, (Laughter.) He thought there was a reformation, but in a week she had lost her temper again. She objected to his friends coming to see him while she was at his house. He suggested that she should come on certain nights, and his friends on others, as if they came when witness and she were alone they might make some mischief. (Laughter.) She wanted a fine house, a drawing-room suite, and a piano, and told told him he would have to clean his own boots. (Laaghter.) She also wanted him to keep a servant. When the bop beer was spilled she took his tea-towel to wipe it up, instead of the proper cloth, which

was close .a ha«d. He did nob express hie surprise in any way but by lifting his eyebrows. (Laughter.) She sail she would throw the towel at his head if lie 1 looked at her like that. On another occasion she said she was the youngest child, and had been spoiled, and could not control her temper. One night when lie spoke to her about being late in meeting him she sulked for two hours, and gave him what he considered a very dirty answer. She spoke of going to Sydney, as the men here were a lot of duffers, and did not many her. She said he had stuck to her bettor than any of them. (Laughter.) She told him if she could only get away to Sydney she would not care any more about him. She treated him worse than a dog. He told her she put her arras around the dog’s neck, and not aronnd his. (Laughter.) That was (reating him worse than a dog. iie told her that she had been insolent to Mr Holliday, she stamped her foot, and said} ‘ D nMr Holliday.’ When he went to her brother’s house she was dusting a room, and she dusted round and round until she backed herself out of the door without speaking. At dinner he made overtures to her by pitching things on to her plate. (Laughter.) They did not speak. After this he found her waiting for him outside his house. She wanted to know his determination. He asked her ( why she had not spoken to him at her brother’s house. She said she did not care to. He told her her dirty conduct had prevented him from sleeping, and she was sorry again. Afterwards she said, 1 We never have agreed, and never will, and it will be better to separate and have no more of it. She also told him she hoped he would get some one to love him as well as she did. He said, if insolence was a proof of love, he wanted no more of it.’ Before they parted she said she was glad it was all oyer, and arranged that he should return some things of hers he bad in his possession. He said he would not compromise the matter. When speaking about it to his friends, he said if he lost hia billet over it he would do as be had done, and go and gather rags and bones on the street. (Laughter.) To Mr Shaw : He did not see why ho should say whether he was absent from the office on marriage leave. (Laughter.) He never agreed to be married on the 7th of September, the plaintiff’s birthday. She wanted to be married on that date but he hact not the means or inclination.

(Laughter.) Mr Shaw : Was all the love-making on her side ? Witness : I think so.

Mr Sha w : How did you come to write her all those letters ? Witness ; I had studied a Complete Letter Writer. (Roars of laughter.) Mr Shaw : Then these letters of yours are all gcammon 1 Witness : She agreed I might write what I liked, and she would not use it against me at a future day. When he had written four pages she said it was not good enough. (Laughter.) He had written, ‘Oh, how lonely, oh, how forlon,’ in one letter to her, because, no doubt, other people had felt like that under similar circumstances. He burned the Complete Writer, because he was afraid she would look at it when she came to his house and see where he had got his expressions from. He got the flower he held in his hand from a girl. He was not what was c ailed a lady-killer. He never killed one in his life. (Laughter.) He knew what Mr Shaw meant. He had courted young ladies with the intention of getting maned, but had not been engaged by watch or ring. He had never courted young ladies and then given them the cold shoulder—n®t in Wellington. He could not remember saying that there were young ladies in Wellington and Christchurch who were ready to jump at him, When he broke off with the plaintiff he said he would not be seen walking with anv one for three months.

Mr Shaw hoped the newspapers would notify the fact that tlie time was nearly up. (Laughter.)

Witness said there was a selfish reason in giving) the plaintiff the watch, for he did not want to be kept waiting. He picked up the watch for 30s at a sale at Dwan’s. He formerly paid 3s per week for his house in Nairn street, but as he had let the rent run on, he got it for 2s Gd (Laughter.) He was not surprised at her wantingabigger house, but he preferred the one he was in. When the plaintiff told him he would have to black his own bools, he told her it was not a customary thing for a civil servant to do. He told her she would have to black his boots. He understood if he manned a lady she would have to give something for what he gave her. He was not really angry at the hop beer being spilled, for the value of (he material was not great, lie thought a young lady who used a wrong cloth to wipe up beer knew very little of household duties. (Laughter.) He merely expressed surprise by lifting his eyebrows. He would not be answerable for Mr Svviney’s veracity or his own. (Laughter.) When she spoke of going to Sydney she complained that the Government fellows would not marry her. He did not offer her £lO to go to Sydney. He would answer for his veracity in that respect. He had put her on three months’ probation, (Laughter.) He told her that if she behaved herself and kept her temper for three months he might accept her on

good terms, (Laughter.) He meant possibly that if she proved worthy of him h« might accept her. She (old Inin to flirt to his heart’s content, and when he told her young ladies were spooning with him he meant her to understand he was doing so. He did not promise marriage with these young ladies. He admitted that lie spoke to th»se young ladies on rather good terms us they seemed anxious to return the compliment. Mr Shaw : Now, are you not a regular lady-killer ? Witness ; I meant to maintain my fairly earned prestige as a single man. Mr Shaw : How old are you ? Wituess ; Twenty-seven. Mr Shaw : And single you mean to remain ?

Witness said it seemed so at present. He might have told plaintiff that Hr Collins advised him to get married. He gave her an epitome of a book called ‘ Social Science.’ He also wrote on the medical view of marriage. He had nothing else to write about, so he filled up with this, When he was at M.r Swiney’s and made overtures to her by pitching things on to her plate, ho expected her to respond by pitching things on his plate. He denied that he ever told Mr William Swmey that it would be a saving of £IOO to him to settle the matter out of Court, He had been a local preacher once on trial. He had no particular religion of his own—nothing outside of what might be termed Protestant.

Re examined : He regarded the writing to her on social science as a sacred matter, not to be paraded in Court. A verdict was given for plaintiff; damages £25.