DUNEDIN SENSATION.
CURATE SUDDENLY DEPARTS.
(By Telegraph — Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Sunday. A mild sensation was claused in Dunedin when it became known that the curate of one of the leading city churches, whose household goods had been disposed of by auction a few days previously, had disappeared, leaving his wife behind, and that his departure apparently coincided with that of a young married woman. -Wairarapa Daily Times, 20/2/1928.
VANISHED WITHOUT LEAVING TRACE
"Truth's" Investigation Throws Light On Mystery Surrounding Remarkable Double Disappearance
MISSING CLERGYMAN AND MARRIED WOMAN
(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative.) Can it be that the morsel of unfortunate coincidence has been carried along on the cruel, biting breath of unfair, uncharitable suspicion, rending in its passage two Dunedin homes? That the simultaneous departure of Elfrida Lucia Gale, young wife of an equally youthful Customs clerk, and Claude Wroughton Hassall, duly ordained a deacon of St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin, from their homes on February 14, has inspired unwarranted and ill-founded conjecture and even positive assertion?
IF this be not the case, then these two are parties to one of the strangest compacts ever listed in the ledger of human psychology.
During the course of her seven years of married life, both in England and New Zealand, Mrs. Hassall had been supremely happy, with a husband whose whole life had been as an open book — irreproachable, of infinite care for her happiness, and a constant inspiration to her — and yet, she says, scarcely more than a month ago his whole attitude and conception of their life appeared to undergo a swift, yet unmistakeable transition
From a lofty idealism of marriage and its attendant spirituality to a completely changed viewpoint.
For some time during 1927 Mrs. Hassall had suffered impaired health and it was with the object of her regaining full vigor and strength that they decided to sell up their home in Dunedin, that her husband might continue unhampered his work, while she was gaining the advantages offered by a sea trip to the Old Country.
On February 8 their comfortable little home and its intimate effects went under the auctioneer's hammer and she went to stay with some friends in North East Valley, while her husband should find lodgings near the centre of the city, so as to be in close and constant touch with his work and the needs of his parishioners.
Strange Features To her horror, she was informed a week later that her husband was nowhere to be found, that Mrs. Gale had similarly disappeared and that there was the ghastly, unthinkable suggestion that they had gone together — had planned to leave for Australia. For that is what a representative of "N.Z. Truth" understood during an interview with Edward Stephen Gale, concerning the husband, who, it seems, has gone — never to return.
Although it is fairly well established that Mrs. Gale has left the country, it is by no means certain that Hassall is not still in Wellington.
This is the first element of a twin contradiction in theory — and certainly the more charitable!
On February 17, the day before Mrs. Gale is supposed to have sailed by the "Manuka," Hassall wrote his wife from Wellington, bidding her "not to believe the worst of him . . ."
And to that hope Mrs. Hassall is pathetically, but hopefully, clinging, believing not a shred of the frightful inference with which, she says, Dunedin is encircling the episode.
It is by no means established that Hassall has left the country and certainly no one in Dunedin appears to be fully aware of the true circumstances.
His was a charming, if masterful, personality, and it is suggested that as his holidays were due in February he decided upon a certain course of action which he did not see fit to disclose to anyone, went north to Wellington, found himself the unwitting victim of circumstance and endeavored to extricate himself and one other from a somewhat difficult contretemps.
Which, in part, at any rate, is borne out by his letter to Mrs. Hassall, and, perhaps, negatived by a suggestion made to "Truth" by an old family friend of Mrs. Gale and also by her own husband during a conversation.
The implied suggestion in these two interviews amounted to this: That on or about January 18. "Elfi" Gale told her husband she could no longer live with him, that she loved Hassall and would go away with him at the end of February.
But by far the strangest part of all — and one which throws to confusion the imputation that misconduct has ever occurred between them — is that Mrs. Gale and Hassall are said to have sworn that they would neither travel nor live together as man and wife, in the fullest sense of the term, until each is free.
Superficially, to some people such a compact as this is beyond understanding or probability, but an examination of the life of each party reveals an individual condition which encourages the belief that their arrangement will be carried out until they are free to marry.
Mrs. Gale is credited with a fine character, a beautiful contralto voice, which she had used with no little earnestness and inspiration for nine years in the Cathedral, and a remarkable flair for tennis.
For years she and her husband had been co-members of the Moana tennis club, on which courts their partnership had developed an enviable reputation. Hassall's career as a lieutenant in the British Navy during the war was one of eminent distinction and it appears that his two years of work as a churchman in Dunedin had been equally marked by diligence and zeal.
What, then, was the real cause of this remarkable affair?
Following their disappearance and in view of what subtle inference on the public part — and vague reference to the occurrence by the two daily papers — had achieved, "Truth" approached Gale and suggested to him that a true revelation of the facts as he knew them would be much preferable to the fragments of idle gossip at present being disseminated. To which he agreed.
Gale said: "On or about January 18 my wife told me she could no longer live with me and that she and Hassall intended to leave the city by the end of February.
"On the following day she left the house, taking her personal belongings with her . . .
"I pointed out to her the hazardous and foolish step she intended to take, but I could not sway her from her conviction.
"Later, I learned that they proposed to leave New Zealand by the 'Manuka,' so on February 15 I rang the house at which she had been staying, only to be informed of her having left the house the previous day.
"No, I have no reason to believe that she was at any time guilty of any immoral relationship with Hassall, but I think she must have been deceiving me for some time . .
"A friend of mine saw Mrs. Gale leave by the 'Manuka'. . . There could be no mistake, as he was speaking to her on the boat and just managed to get ashore as the gangway was removed from the ship's side.
After Three Years "We had been married only three years."
Contrary to vicious rumor, it is believed that no one had any real suspicion that the pair had been guilty of clandestine relationship, but rather that extended propinquity — their close association in many activities, meetings and all the little functions generally encountered among churchgoers — perhaps accounted for (and culminated in) their sudden impulse to brave the world, its criticism and its cant.
That is to say, if the covenant suggested by "Elfi" Gale's old family friend is the correct explanation of their unexpected exit from Dunedin.
So many are eager to pre-judge. Will sceptics and scandal be confounded by the reappearance of Hassall, bearing with him a positive and reasonable explanation? Or have they burned their boats?
If the latter proves the fact, then Mrs. Hassall, already a stricken woman, will make her sad return to the land of her birth, where, among the flowers and environment of her English home, she may perhaps yet find surcease and lasting happiness. -NZ Truth, 8/3/1928.
DUNEDIN DOINGS.
(From Our Own Correspondent) Cold and wintry is a fairly apt description of the weather that has been experienced recently in Dunedin, and its effects have been felt all the more shiveringly by reason of the warm spell that preceded the recent break. However, there is no reason to fear that the summer has passed already. There should be many more fine warm days before we find ourselves in the icy grasp of winter. In fact even now the glass is rising once again — the weather glass.
A SUDDEN DEPARTURE. There are generally believed to be three ways of becoming famous, the easiest being to have fame thrust upon one. Another way is to do something sensational. A certain amount of fame of a sort has recently been achieved by two young persons in Dunedin, or to be more precise they have left their fame behind them. The circumstances are connected with the departure from the city of a curate who was associated with one of the leading city churches, and the absence from home of a young married woman who was a member of the church choir, and also a prominent lawn tennis player. Whether the simultaneous departure of these two people was in the nature of a coincidence or was by design is merely a matter of conjecture; but the fact remains that the episode has given occasion for an extraordinary wagging of the tongue of gossip, and not a few remarkable stories have gained currency respecting the whole matter. A feature that is recalled in connection with the departure of the curate, who is also married, is that his household effects were recently advertised for sale by auction. The husband of the young woman is a well and popularly known figure in business circles in the city, and general regret is felt that he should have been the victim of an unfortunate set of circumstances.
A TRAGIC ANNOUNCEMENT. There was recently a peculiar happening in Dunedin. It was an occurrence of the kind that shows the lengths to which human foolishness will sometimes go. A year or two ago a wealthy couple of English residents of India made a tour of the Dominion bringing with them a pet Himalayan white rat, which it was the lady's custom to take everywhere with her. Alphonso, as he was called, was placed in quarantine in Sydney, and this somewhat delayed the arrival of the trio in New Zealand. When the couple were visiting friends the inquiry was invariably made: "Do you keep a cat?" and if so a reason was generally found for another engagement. In due time the couple returned to India and in due time also Alphonso went the way of all rodents and humans. As a result the local newspapers contained the pathetic announcement of Alphonso's death, aged two years and seven months, "deeply mourned." For sheer fatuity this would be hard to beat. -Cromwell Argus, 19/3/1928.
Reverend C. Hassall Tells Husband
He Formed A Love Pact With His Accuser's Wife Who Sang in Choir
IT must provide rather embarrassing food for reflection for a parson to know that whilst he assumes the mantle of clerical piety, preaching on a basis of unchallengeable goodness and chanting, maybe, the passage: "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," he is capable of slipping surreptitiously from the pulpit to break sacred commandment before running away with another man's wife, who sang in the choir. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone!"
IT may be perfectly reasonable to suppose that in the course of his devout religious exercises the Rev. Claude Ellis Wroughton Hassall, duly ordained deacon of St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin, had given the blessing of his church, the legality of his God and the advice of himself to many matrimonial alliances.
And, to assume this everyday part of clerical duties, is ordinarily to presuppose that he who, purporting to speak as a humble instrument of God, should be without sin himself.
But apparently Biblical doctrine or precept meant nothing to Hassall, who declined to appear in the Dunedin Supreme Court last Saturday to defend his name and character against the allegations contained in the divorce petition of Edward Stephen Gale, a young Customs clerk, who joined the cleric as corespondent.
The petition was based on the ground of misconduct.
Early in March of this year, a sensation was caused in social and ecclesiastical circles through the sudden disappearance of the Rev Claude Hassall and, incidentally, Mrs. Elfrida Lucia Dundas Gale, best known in Dunedin as an Otago representative tennis player and a member of St. Paul's Cathedral choir.
Little information was offered by the interested parties on either side, beyond the fact that Gale, the woman's husband, in response to "N.Z. Truth's" request that, he should give a statement of the facts to quell the idle gossip and uncharitable innuendo, said his wife had told him that sh, and Hassall intended going away together, and that the following day she left home taking her personal belongings with her.
Gale at that time stated that he had no reason to believe that his wife had been guilty of any improper relationship with Hassall, but he thought that she must have been deceiving him for some time.
The next Gale heard of the matter was from a friend, who supplied the information that Mrs. Gale had sailed by the Manuka from Wellington for Australia. So much for the rift in the Gale household.
Perhaps it was mere coincidence that at the same time the contents of the Hassall home were offered for sale by public auction — even the matches were sold — ostensibly to enable Mrs. Hassall to regain her health, on a sea voyage to her home in England.
The Hassalls had enjoyed the supreme happiness of a loving union. The young clergyman, according to his wife, was the beau ideal, paying infinite care to her happiness, while she, in return, was wrapped up in him and his work.
She lavished on him the tender sympathies and loving care of a dutiful wife, and it was in her desire to assist him to continue unhampered in his work that she agreed to selling up their home, so that he could lodge in town and be in close touch to administer the needs of his parishioners. Then came the crash.
Hassall's attitude towards her changed, and soon she learned, while she was living with a friend in North East Valley, awaiting a passage to England, that her husband had absconded and that Mrs. Gale had made a simultaneous departure, the intormation being supported with the conjecture that they were bound for Australia.
So, over the tea cups in Dunedin, idle lips passed the story of the curate who stole the heart of another man's wife, and the episode was embellished, nay festooned, with subtle inference — a direct negative, if it could be believed, to the assertion that marriages are made in heaven. At the same time an old family friend of Mrs. Gale, prompted no doubt in the best interests, related a strange compact that Hassall and the woman had allegedly entered into.
The effect of it was that they would neither travel nor live together as man and wife, in the full sense of the term, until each was free to do so.
That this was palpably erroneous was proved last week when a boardinghouse keeper, from Palmerston South, informed the court that Hassall and Mrs. Gale occupied a room in her house as "Mr. and Mrs. Masters," on the night they left Dunedin for Australia.
Vivacious Woman
But how came these people to mean so much to each, other?
Mrs. Gale, a vivacious type with an effervescing personality, was possessed of a contralto voice of fine quality which was an effective unit in the choir of St. Paul's for some nine years.
"And on a January morning," as the Otago University students chose to refer to the incident in their capping celebrations, the inspiration of the siren apparently stirred in the young curate the impulse which impels and incites.
Nature was generous to Elfrida Gale, whose unaffected charm drew around her a circle of admirers of whom the curate was the most prominent.
And their constant association in church work brought them frequently together, offering every opportunity for their friendship to ripen into true love.
And in such an atmosphere, between pulpit and choir bench, the Rev. Claude Hassall and Elfrida Gale were thrown together, ultimately, through their own folly, to wreck two homes and wound two aching hearts. Hassall had spent two years in church work in Dunedin and prior to that he was, according to his own word, a product of Harrow, a lieutenant in the British Navy and a prison chaplain.
In Anglican circles in Dunedin it is certainly said in his favor that he helped materially by his inspiring work to swell the finances of the diocese, while his popularity among the parishioners was immeasurable.
His work was the subject of eulogistic reference many times by both the clergy and the parishioners to whom Hassall frequently made eloquent appeals for greater recognition for the youth of the church.and youth work.
He was a polished elocutionist and it was as soothing music to hear his richly-toned and clearly articulated voice reading the lessons. Toc H. was another movement to which the curate gave his earnest support.
But Hassall staged an airy bluff which, as light as thistledown, has been blown to the winds and has shown up the absconding cleric in his true colors as a home-breaker and an adulterer.
And so they went to face the criticism of the cold, matter-of fact world, and together they were
Runaway Couple Break Two Hearts And Then Register
At Boarding-house Under Assumed Name Before Fleeing
found living at 442, Auburn Road, Hawthorn, Melbourne, where they were identified from photographs, and the petition of Edward Stephen Gale was served upon them.
Among the gallery in the body of the court when the husband's petition came before Mr. Justice Ostler in Dunedin last Saturday was Archdeacon Whitehead, an interested listener, whose clerical coat and gaiters lent an ecclesiastical atmosphere to the proceedings.
Lawyer Claude White appeared in support of the petition and successfully guided Edward Stephen Gale through the rock-bound sea of matrimony to freedom from an unfaithful wife.
The petitioner, a youthful husband, said he was a Customs clerk employed in Dunedin. His marriage to Elfrida Lucia Dundas Barclay took place at St. John's Church, Roslyn, on March 2, 1926, the ceremony being performed by Archdeacon Fitchett. There were no children and the parties lived together until January, 1928.
"On the evening of Sunday, January 22 last," continued the petitioner, I had a conversation with my wife when she told me she had been receiving the attention of another man, and on being pressed further, she said it was the curate of the church she was attending."
She left home the following day, going to her mother's home at 9 Garfield Avenue.
"I interviewed Hassall on the Tuesday morning, and he told me that the state of affairs as outlined by me was correct.
"He said that he had seen my wife on the previous evening and he confirmed that their feelings were similar towards each other."
"He said they proposed to go away together from New Zealand. I said, 'There is no place you can take her to where you could not be found out,' but Hassall replied that there were plenty of places.
"On the following Saturday I took some of her personal belongings to her mother's house and there I saw her with Hassall.
"They came in about a quarter to seven and said they had been to Fraser's Creek."
Lawyer White: I believe that is a park somewhere near Dunedin? Gale: That is so.
_______________________________________________________________
LOVE, it is said, conquers all things, but there are two ways of viewing the actions of the Rev. L. G. W. Hassall in sandwiching an illicit relationship between the preaching of God's word to his unsuspecting flock. It may be, also, that regular church-goers should be expected to abide by the parsonic doctrine, "Don't do as I do, But as I tell you," though he who preacheth should surely remember that example's the thing. In the matter of spiritual advice, apparently it was more blessed to give than to receive.
______________________________________________________________
The petitioner went on to say that Hassall intimated that he proposed to take Mrs. Gale away from New Zealand and in all probability they would go to Australia.
To prove petitioner's earnest desire that his wife should not leave him, and that he was prepared to forgive her and take her back, counsel put in a copy of a letter written by Gale to his wife on January 31.
It read as follows: "My Dear Elfrida, — Although, you have refused, after my seeing you, to return home, and have openly declared your affection for another man, I am still very fond of you and do want you to give up your foolish ideas and come back home. We have had many years of happiness together, both before and after being married, and you have no cause to /leave me as you have done. I will forgive you and forget what has, happened if you only come back, and continue our happy home life together as before.
"I am sure that if you do not you will regret it and spoil both our lives."
Yours with much love, Stephen.
Despite these entreaties Mrs. Gale refused to return.
"On February 2," witness added, "I saw my wife in the street and she told me she was going to Waimate to see her brother and I saw her away on the express.
"Five days later she rang up on the telephone stating that she had received the letter, that she was back, and that she had not gone to Waimate.
"We later met by accident in the street when she told me she was going to Australia.
"I asked her if she was going to Sydhey but she said she did not think so as she had an aunt there. She thought they would be going to Melbourne.
''I urged her not to take such a foolish step in a hurry and she replied that it would not be before the end of March.
Petitioner gave a detailed description of both his wife and Hassall and identified the photographs attached to the affidavit of service in Melbourne as those of Mrs. Gale and the minister.
Sarah Lalla Holworthy, widow, of Palmerston South, stated that at 8pm on February 14, of this year, a couple whom she identified from the photographs as Mrs. Gale and Hassall, called at her boarding-house and asked if they could stay until the next morning as they were catching the first express en-route to Melbourne. They gave the names of Mr. and Mrs. Masters.
Counsel: Did they occupy the same room? — Yes, a double room.
Counsel: How many beds in it? — One double bed. They spent the night there and left the next morning.
Counsel: I have the taxi-driver who took them to Palmerston if your Honor wishes further evidence.
His honor: It is unnecessary to prove anything further, Mr. White. Decree nisi to be made absolute at the expiry of three months with costs on the lowest scale against the co-respondent.
(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Dunedin Representative.) THE melodious tones of her rich contralto voice, floating out over the congregation at St. Paul's, Dunedin, might have inspired or unnerved the preacher in his moment of allegedly devout contemplation. Rev. E. C W. Hassall has not given us this plum for the public pudding of wonder. Perhaps he does not like being cited as a co-respondent in a divorce action, anyway! And how blandly he lifted the parsonic eyebrows and opened the cultured mouth to admit in a perfect wave of eloquent affection that he loved his accusers wife. He was certainly frank. More, said he who had just arrived from the park with the woman when her husband called, he had even intended taking her away to Australia. And it came to pass! -NZ Truth, 16/8/1928.
An observation or two on the above. A Temporary Lieutenant, RN, named Hassall can be found on the relevant lists. A stillborn baby named Hassall is buried in Dunedin's Andersons Bay Cemetery. It died on April 11, 1927, and might be connected with Mrs Hassall's health problems. A visit to a genealogy forum brings the information that Hassall had his Holy Orders permanently revoked in 1929 and that he was married to an Elspeth Euphemia Margate in 1934, two years after his wife divorced him. He died in Brisbane in 1969.
Edward Stephen Gale married Ruth Brown Cook (a signer of the Women's Sufferage Petition of 1893) in 1931. As a "former Comptroller of Customs" was awarded the Imperial Service Order in 1960. He died in 1976.
"Elfie" married Edward Mann in 1943.
No comments:
Post a Comment