PART SEVEN

The Short Australia Line - 1820 to 2013

Updated March 2015

This is the family line of June Tobin of Seaford in Australia

7M1	HENRY COLLETT and Ann were the parents of George Edwin Collett who was born at Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire, England, during the first four months of 1822.
	7N1	GEORGE EDWIN COLLETT	Born in 1822
7N1	GEORGE EDWIN COLLETT was born in 1822 and was baptised at Leonard Stanley on 20^th April 1822. The entry was a new addition, discovered and inserted in December 2001 – see footnote at the end of this family line. George Edwin Collett later married (1) Agnes Keane around 1848/49 at St Giles Camberwell in London, and the marriage certificate confirmed that George’s occupation was that of an ‘upholder’. That was perhaps an indication he was a member of The Worshipful Company of Upholders, an upholder being the archaic name for an upholsterer.
	The two children from that marriage were both born in London; the first child was born at York Place in Battersea, and the second at The Terrace in Kennington, although both of them were baptised at the Church of St Mark in Kennington. In the spring of 1854 the family set sail for Australia on board the sailing ship Stebonheath and arrived at Melbourne in August that same year. Rather curiously the ship’s indent only listed George Collett, who was thirty-three years old, and his two children George Collett and Alice Collett. It therefore seems very likely that his wife Agnes had died prior to his departure from England, possible during or as a result of the failed birth of a third child.
	What is known for sure, is that George was married for a second time during 1861 in Australia, his new bride being (2) Alice William–Jones, and their only child William Henry Collett was born at Inglewood in Victoria. On the child’s birth certificate, George referred to himself as ‘of Cheltenham’ – see footnote.
	Soon after the birth of William Henry, the family went to live in New Zealand where they managed a hotel at Naseby in central New Zealand. George must have eventually returned to Australia, because it was there that his death was recorded in 1903 at the age of eighty-one when, according to the information detailed on his death certificate, his occupation at the end of his life had been that of a grocer.
	7O1	George William Collett	Born on 30.03.1849
	7O2	EVELYN ALICE COLLETT	Born on 12.08.1850
	The following is the only child of George Collett by his second wife Alice:
	7O3	William Henry Collett	Born in 1861 Inglewood, Victoria
7O1	George William Collett was born at York Place in Battersea, London on 30^th March 1849. That might indicate his parents were married during 1848, rather than as previously documented in 1849, although that cannot be ruled out and would mean that Agnes was with-child on her wedding day. Just like his sister Evelyn (below), George William Collett was baptised at St Mark’s Church in Kennington, London. That took place on 1^st July 1849 and confirmed that his parents were George Edwin Collett and his wife Agnes. Following his voyage to Australia with his father and sister in 1854, nothing further has so far been discovered about what happened to George William Collett.
	However, within the Electoral Roll for 1896 a certain George Collett was a resident of Caversham in South Dunedin where he was working as a printer. The reason for assuming that he may well be George William Collett is related to his occupation, when his half brother William Henry was a compositor for a printer. Only one other Collett was recorded in the listing that year and she was Ann Collett of Leonard Street in Kensington, South Dunedin, who was undertaking domestic duties.
	By 1899 The South Dunedin Electoral Roll contained the following names. The same George Collett, the printer of Caversham, the same Ann Collett of Leonard Street, and the same William Henry Collett (below) and his wife Alice of McGlashan Street in St Kilda. However, by then they had been added to by the inclusion of bootmaker Benjamin Collett and his wife Annie Elizabeth Collett of Grosvenor Street in Kensington. It is now established that he was Benjamin Lewis Uparis Collett (Ref. 66O4) and that Annie Elizabeth was his second wife. See Part 66 – The France to New Zealand Line. By 1902 George Collett the printer was residing at Hillside Road in Kensington, while all the others from 1899 were once again recorded at the same addresses as in the previous electoral roll.
	It was the next Electoral Roll in 1905 which was more interesting, insofar as the previously mentioned Ann Collett of Leonard Street was no longer living there, perhaps she was married by then. Instead it was music teacher William Henry and his wife Alice Harriet who were recorded at a house in Leonard Street in Kensington. Only four Colletts were named in the 1905 listing and the other two were the aforementioned Benjamin and his wife Annie Elizabeth who were still residents in Grosvenor Street. According to the Electoral Roll In 1911 only three adult Colletts were still living in the South Dunedin registration district. They were William Henry and Alice Harriet Collett, who by then were living at 54 Helena Street, and Annie Elizabeth Collett, the widow of Benjamin Collett, who was then living at 36 Rankeilor Street.
	William and Alice, and the widow Annie were still living at the same addresses in 1914, and had been joined on the listing by civil servant Stratford John Waverley Collett (Ref. 4M16) and his wife Marion of 54 Glen Avenue in Mornington. In 1919 the widow Annie Elizabeth Collett of 36 Rankeilor Street had living there with her unmarried daughter Vera Emma Collett (Ref. 66P8), while living at 54 Helena Street was still William and Alice with their sons George Edmund and Clarence Thomas (all below).
	Some new Colletts were listed on the Electoral Roll of 1922 and they were Edward Carnarvon Collett (Ref. 4M14), a customs office, his wife Marion Collett and their unmarried daughter Hannah Maria Ellen (Ella) Collett (Ref. 4N11), all residing at 45 Maryhill Terrace in Mornington. Edward was the older brother of Stratford John Collett (above). Mother and daughter, Annie and Vera Collett, were still living at 36 Rankeilor Street. George Edmund Collett, the married son of William and Alice, and his wife Evelyn were living at 262 South Road in Caversham, while for some unknown reason there was no record of William Henry Collett or his wife Alice Harriet.
	However, they were both once again included in the listing for 1925, when a total of fourteen Colletts were named. William and Alice were at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda, where their married son Clarence and his wife Eva were staying at that time. Their other married son George Edmund and his wife Evelyn were recorded as 462 South Street in Caversham. Living at 10 Nelson Street was father and son William Collett (Ref. 58O6), a tinsmith, and William Edwin Collett (Ref. 58P30), a labourer, William’s wife being Mary Collett. Customs officer Edward Carnarvon Collett, his wife Mary (rather than Marion as in 1922), and their daughter Ella Hannah and their son Edward Carnarvon Collett (Ref. 4N12), a storeman, were still living on Maryhill Terrace but at number 28 and not 45. And still living at 36 Rankeilor Street was the widow Annie Elizabeth Collett, but without her daughter Vera who was married the previous year.
	Three years later the Electoral Roll for 1928 included fifteen eligible adults of the Collett name, with two additional names being spinsters Amelia Louisa Collett (Ref. 58P32) of 15 Nelson Street and Iris Doreen Collett (Ref. 66P9) of 61 Rankeilor Street, the second daughter of Annie Elizabeth Collett who was still residing at Rankeilor Street but at number 26 and not 36 as previously. The same four adult members of the family of William Henry Collett were still at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda, and they had been joined by his recently divorced eldest son George. The four adults of the family of Edward Carnarvon were still living at 28 Maryhill Terrace where his wife was again named as Mary, plus the three members of the family of the aforementioned Amelia Louisa Collett who were still living at nearby 10 Nelson Street.
	The previously listed Amelia Louisa Collett was staying with her family at 15 Nelson Street in 1831 and was still a spinster living with William and Mary and William Edwin. By that time only seven others of the name were still residing within the South Dunedin polling area, and five of them were still living at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda. William Henry only had his two sons and their wives living with him on that occasion. The other two, as before were living in Rankeilor Street, widow Annie Elizabeth Collett at number 26 and her daughter Iris Doreen Collett at number 61.
	By the time the new list was produced in 1935 the members of the Collett clan in South Dunedin had increased again to fifteen. Clarence and his wife Eva was still living with his father who had moved to 52 Dalgety Street, leaving the elder son George Edward (sic) and his second wife Muriel still at their previous home at 6 Alma Street. William and Mary and their daughter Amelia were then at 10 Nelson Street, while Annie and her unmarried daughter Iris were then living together at 61 Rankeilor Street. The remaining five were Edward Carnarvon, wife Mary, daughter Ella, and sons William Cahill Collett (Ref. 4N14), a postal official, and James Collett (Ref. 4N13), a storeman, whose address was 156 Glen Avenue.
	The final year for which records are currently available is 1938. That year the widow Annie Elizabeth Collett was still living at 61 Rankeilor Street but alone as her daughter Iris was married by then, William Henry Collett was still at 52 Dalgety Street with his son Clarence Thomas and his daughter-in-law Eva Helen Collett, while his other son George Edmund Collett and his wife Muriel Irene Collett were still at 6 Alma Street. Still living at 10 Nelson Street was tinsmith William Collett, his wife Mary and their daughter Amelia Louisa Collett. And final still residing at 156 Glen Avenue was Mary Collett (without her husband) with her daughter Ella Hannah Collett and her son William Cahill Collett.
7O2	EVELYN ALICE COLLETT was born at Kennington in London on 12^th August 1850, and it was there at St Mark’s Church that she was baptised on 1^st September 1850, the daughter of George Edwin Collett and his wife Agnes. In 1854 Evelyn accompanied her widowed father and brother George (above) to Australia, and it was there that she married Henry Pullen at Fitzroy in Melbourne during 1870. All of their ten children were born in Australia. The only other known fact about the family is that Henry Pullen died in 1934.
	7P1	Agnes Alice Pullen	Born in 1871; died in 1871
	7P2	Alice Pullen	Born in 1872; died in 1872
	7P3	George Henry Pullen	Born in 1873; died in 1956
	7P4	Henry Pullen	Born in 1875; died in 1945
	7P5	Gertrude Jane Pullen	Born in 1879; died in 1949
	7P6	Emma Eliza Pullen	Born in 1882
	7P7	Gilbert Sayers Pullen	Born in 1885; died in 1974
	7P8	James Samuel Pullen	Born in 1888; died in 1889
	7P9	Annie Pullen	Born in 1889; died in 1889
	7P10	Rueben William Pullen	Born in 1892; died in 1933
7O3	William Henry Collett was born at Inglewood in Victoria during 1861 the youngest son of George Edwin Collett and his only child by his second wife Alice William-Jones. A compositor by trade in the printing industry, William emigrated to New Zealand when he was around 25 years of age in 1886 and in the same year he married Alice Harriet Welsh, the daughter of Charles Maddox and Louisa Welsh. Alice was born at Somerset in England during 1868 before her parents emigrated to New Zealand on the ship the Warrior Queen, whilst it is believed that her mother Louisa died during the sea voyage when giving birth to a stillborn daughter. William and Alice were blessed with three children, Annie Louisa, George Edmund and Clarence Thomas Collett. Annie and Clarence were both born in New Zealand, while George was born in Australia perhaps when the family were visiting relatives there.
	The South Dunedin New Zealand Electoral Rolls for the years from 1893 to 1938 William and his wife Alice were listed in the 1899 and 1902 listings as residing at McGlashan Street in St Kilda, by which time William, referred to as Henry in the latter listing, had the occupation of a music teacher. At the time of the 1905 elections William Henry and Alice Harriet Collett were living at Leonard Street in Kensington, and six years later in 1911 their address was 54 Helena Street in South Dunedin, where they still in residence from that time through to the elections in 1919.
	By 1925 the Electoral Roll that year placed William Henry with wife Alice, their daughter-in-law Eva Helen Collett and their son Clarence Thomas, all living at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda. The four of them were still living together at the time of the election in 1928 election, but in addition to which their older son George had returned home after being granted a divorce from his wife Evelyn. It was also 6 Alma Street that was the family’s home still in 1931 when the occupants were just William, as head of the household, his son George with new wife Muriel, and his son Clarence. Where Eva Helen was that day has not been determined. However, it is surmised that William’s wife Alice may have been in hospital or a nursing home in 1931, since she was also missing from the family home in both the 1935 and 1938 Electoral Rolls. For the first of them, William Henry Collett, a music teacher, was recorded as residing at 52 Dalgety Street, when also with him at that address was his son Clarence with his wife Eva Helen Collett. It is interesting to note, that still living at 6 Alma Street was his married son and his wife Muriel, although George was listed in error as George Edward Collett.
	It was at 52 Dalgety Street that William lived out the rest of his life. His wife Alice was still absent from the family home in 1938, and it was that same year that Alice Harriet Collett nee Welsh aged 70 died on 28^th August 1938. It was the following day that she was buried in a family plot [Block 134 Plot 77] at Andersons Bay Cemetery in Dunedin where she was later joined by her husband. William Henry Collett was still living at 52 Dalgety Street in Dunedin at the time of his death on 5^th October 1947 when he was 86, following which he was buried with his wife on 7^th October in the Andersons Bay Cemetery in Dunedin. The same family plot was later used for the burial of their two sons and one of their wives.
	The record of the death of William Henry Collett at Dunedin confirmed that he was a compositor and a native of Australia who have been living in New Zealand for the past sixty-one years. It is curious that no listing for the family every included any mention of the couple’s first child, their only daughter Annie Louisa, so it is conceivable that she may have suffered an infant death or left home very young to be married or moved away from the family.
	7P11	Annie Louisa Collett	Born in 1887 in New Zealand
	7P12	George Edmund Collett	Born in 1892 at Melbourne in Australia
	7P13	Clarence Thomas Collett	Born in 1898 in New Zealand
7P6	Emma Eliza Pullen was born in 1882 and married Fred Murray after the turn of the century.
	7Q1	June Murray	Born circa 1910
7P11	Annie Louisa Collett was born at Caversham in the Kensington area of Dunedin in New Zealand on 14^th June 1887 (Ref. 1887019818) when her parents were confirmed as William Henry Collett age 26 of Inglewood in Victoria and his wife Alice Harriet Collett nee Welsh from Bristol in Somerset, England.
7P12	George Edmund Collett was born in Australia around 1890 to parents William Henry Collett and Alice Harriet Welsh who home was in New Zealand before and after that event. In his early life he lived with his family at McGlashan Street in St Kilda, at Leonard Street in Kensington and at 54 Helena Street in South Dunedin. George Edmund Collett enlisted in the New Zealand Army at Dunedin on 27^th September 1916. His entry papers described him as being aged 24 years and 7 months, 5 feet 5½ inches tall, of a medium complexion with hazel eyes and brown hair, and having the occupation of a labourer. He stated in ignorance that his father, William Henry Collett, had been born in Naseby in Otago - where the family had been living - not knowing that he had been born at Inglewood in Australia. However, he correctly provided his mother's place of birth as Somersetshire in England and her home address as 54 Helena Street in South Dunedin.
	Five months later, after receiving his basic training, George sailed from Wellington to Devonport in England on board the ship Navua on 16^th February 1917 with H Company of 22^nd Reinforcements of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. He was Rifleman 39169 and served just one year and thirty-three days in France before being discharged on 17^th April 1918. The reason for his exit from the Great War was because he was no longer physically fit for war service on account of the numerous bullet wounds he had received in frontline action.
	Not long after his return to New Zealand he married (1) Evelyn Bell at Dunedin on 26^th March 1919 and according to the South Dunedin Electoral Roll in 1922 the couple was living at 262 South Road, Caversham in Dunedin, when George was working as a soap maker as he had been as a bachelor in early 1919. Between the years of 1919 and 1927 Evelyn presented George with four children, of which no details are currently known, while the Electoral Rolls in 1925 again placed the family still living in South Road but at number 462 instead of 262, by which time George was a soap stamper. Shortly after 1925 George took up work with the railway which resulted in the family leaving Dunedin and moving to Addington in Christchurch. Tragically for George the marriage was not successful and he and Evelyn were eventually divorced in 1927 after Evelyn had been involved in an affair with George's cousin Alfred Frederick Welsh. In the absence of any further information it has been assumed at this time that George’s four children remained with him rather than their mother.
	The following is the first paragraph of the story published in the New Zealand Truth magazine on 8^th December 1927 under the heading “First Cousin who thought He Came First”: The pealing of marriage bells in 1919 is now but a dim memory for the Colletts of Dunedin. The crash has come, due to Evelyn having loved not wisely but too well outside the marital fold. George Edmund Collett has secured his decree nisi and his first cousin, Alfred Frederick Welsh, an engineer of Christchurch, has been told by a Jury to deliver £300 as a balm to the injured husband's feelings in having had his wife stolen from him by the amorous Alfred. George Edmund, who is a railway employee, journeyed with his counsel, Lawyer J. S. Sinclair, all the way from Dunedin last week to tell Judge Adams and a jury all about it in the Christchurch Divorce Court. Collett not only asked that the nuptial knot be severed, but that he should be awarded the sum of £500 damages at the expense of the correspondent Welsh. The continuation of the report on the courtroom proceedings can be found in the appendix at the end of this file.
	Following the failure of his marriage George returned to live at the home of his parents at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda, where he was living in 1928. It was during the following year that George married (2) Muriel Irene Holland and by 1931 he and his new wife were still living at 6 Alma Street. During the next four years George’s father moved out of the dwelling that was 6 Alma Street, while George and his wife continued to live there. That was confirmed in the listing for 1935 when, in error, the couple was recorded as George Edward (sic) and Muriel Irene Collett. It was also at that same address that the couple was living in 1938, by which time George’s occupation was that of a carpenter.
	George Edmund Collett died at the age of 65 on 20^th July 1957 at 7 Cooper Street in Mornington which is within the general area of South Dunedin where the family had been living previously. He was subsequently buried in the family plot at the Andersons Bay Cemetery on 23^rd July 1957. His second wife Muriel Irene Collett was also buried in the Andersons Bay Cemetery when she passed away twenty-seven years later on 30^th November 1984.
	George and Muriel Collett had one known child, Edmund Ross Collett, who born while the family was living at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda. Sometime after the death of her husband in 1957 Muriel emigrated to Australia with her son and his young family possibly in 1959 or 1960, but subsequently returned to New Zealand on the Wanganella during the month of June in 1963. On the ship’s passenger list she was recorded as being 64 years of age and retired, which would suggest she had previously been in work to support the family.
	7Q2	Mona Daphne Collett	Born in 1920 at Dunedin
	7Q3	a Collett child	Born in 1922 at Dunedin
	7Q4	a Collett child	Born in 1924 at Dunedin
	7Q5	a Collett child	Born in 1926 at Dunedin or Addington
	The following is the only known child of George Edmund Collett by his second wife Muriel I Holland:
	7Q6	Edmund Ross Collett	Born in 1930 at St Kilda, Dunedin
7P13	Clarence Thomas Collett was born in New Zealand on 23^rd October 1898, the youngest of the three known children of William Henry Collett and Alice Harriet Welsh. As a young child he grew up while living at McGlashan Street in St Kilda and by the time he was around five years old he and his family were living at Leonard Street in Kensington. Clarence Collett was placed second amongst the Infants Room Boys Class Prizes at the Kensington School, on the corner of Grosvenor Street and Andersons Bay Road at the end of term in December 1905. In his early to mid-teens his parents took the family to live at 54 Helena Street in South Dunedin, where they were recorded in 1911 and again in 1919. On leaving school Clarence became a tally clerk and it was during 1921 that he married Eva Helen Dickson, the daughter of Alexander and Janet Dickson, Eva having been born in New Zealand on 4^th May 1899. Even after they were married Clarence and Eva continued to live with his parents through to 1925 and that year the family’s home was at 6 Alma Street in St Kilda, when Clarence was a candle maker.
	From 1925 through to 1931 Clarence and Eva and Clarence’s parent continued to reside at 6 Alma Street, but sometime after that the couple and Clarence’s father moved house to 52 Dalgety Street leaving his brother George (above) still living in the property at 6 Alma Street. And it was at 52 Dalgety Street in Dunedin that candle maker Clarence and his wife were living with Clarence’s father in 1935 and 1938.
	By the time of the death of Clarence Thomas Collett at Dunedin at the age of 82 on 22^nd September 1983 he was described as a soap maker, following which he was buried in the family plot at Andersons Bay Cemetery on 24^th September. Clarence’s wife Eva Helen Collett nee Holland survived him by a further seven years, when she passed away at the Chalet Hospital on the High Street in Dunedin on 27^th May 1990 at the age of 91 and was buried in the same plot as her husband and his parents and his brother George. It still has not been ascertain whether Clarence and Eva ever had any children.
7Q1	June Murray was born around 1910 to parents Fred Murray and his wife Emma Eliza Pullen. She later married to become June Tobin.
7Q2	Mona Daphne Collett was born at Caversham in Dunedin on 22^nd October 1920, the daughter of George Edmund Collett and his first wife Evelyn Bell. It is likely that it was at the family home in South Street that she was born where her father was living before becoming a married man and after when he and Mona’s mother were living with her grandparents in 1922 and 1925. In 1927 when Mona and her family were living at Addington in Christchurch her parents were divorced, although it is not clear whether she and her three siblings remaining living with her mother or her father, both of whom remarried after the decree nisi. Mona later married to become Mona Daphne Campbell who had a son Al Campbell. It was during 2013 that Mona Daphne Campbell nee Collett passed away.
7Q6	Edmund Ross Collett was born at 6 Alma Street within the St Kilda district of South Dunedin on 7^th November 1930, the second of George Edmund Collett and his second wife Muriel Irene Holland. The family was still living at that same address eight years later according to the electoral rolls. Whilst his father was a carpenter in 1938, Edmund followed in the footsteps of his grandfather William Henry Collett and his great uncle George William Collett when he became a printer. Edmund Ross Collett later married June Irene who was born in New Zealand on 1^st January 1931. Over the following years June presented Edmund with two children Ross and Lynette, and just after the death of his father in 1957 Edmund and his family, together with his widowed mother, emigrated to Australia. It is possible the five of them were living close to other relatives when in Australia. However, life there was not for them, and they returned to Auckland in New Zealand on the Wanganella on 9^th June 1963, and thereafter made their way back to Dunedin. Edmund and June was both described as being 32 years of age, with Edmund’s occupation confirmed as a printer.
	Also of interest on their return journey and among the passengers on board the Wanganella was Ray Codrye and Thelma Codyre. Ray, aged 36, was a linotype operator in the printing trade who may have been a work colleague, friend or relative of Edmund Collett. The same passenger list described Thelma Codyre as having been born in New Zealand and that she was 58 years of age, making her year of birth around 1905. In fact, it now transpires that, Thelma Codrye was the former Thelma Gladys Collett who died in New Zealand during 1972, as confirmed on BDM New Zealand database. Who she actually was and where she fits into this family line, has still to be determined.
	The retired printer Edmund Ross Collett died on 26^th February 2013 when he had been living at 39 Law Street in the Caversham district of South Dunedin, following which he was buried five days later at the Dunedin Cemetery on 1^st March. His wife June Irene Collett had passed away eleven years earlier when she died in 2002 in New Zealand although, curiously, no record has been found of her in any of the Dunedin Cemeteries.
	7R1	Ross Collett	Born circa 1956 in New Zealand
	7R2	Lynette Collett	Born circa 1959 in New Zealand
7R1	Ross Collett was born in New Zealand around 1956, the son of Edmund Ross Collett and his wife June Irene. He was around three years old when his family emigrated to Australia after the death of his grandfather, but returned within a few years. For that return journey on board the ship Wanganella on 9^th June 1963 Ross Collett was recorded as being seven years of age.
7R2	Lynette Collett was born in New Zealand around 1959, two years after her grandfather George Edmund Collett passed away. Shortly after her birth her parents Edmund Ross Collett and June Irene Collett took the family to living in Australia, together with Lynette’s recently widowed grandmother. However, the new life did not live up to their expectations and the family later returned to Dunedin during the 1960s. For that return journey on 9^th June 1963 Lynette Collett was four years old.
	Footnotes:
The original information for George Edwin Collett (above) was assembled in 1995 by June Tobin with the help of Margaret Chadd. What was always in question was that George Collett (Ref. 1N60) of Leonard Stanley near Stroud, the son of Thomas Collett and Ann Antill (Ref. 1M41) was not George Edwin Collett who stated that he was “of Cheltenham” on the birth certificate of his youngest known son William Henry Collett (Ref. 7O3).
Furthermore it is very likely that the reference to Cheltenham by George Edwin Collet at that time, was made in regard to the district of Melbourne where he was living, rather than the town in Gloucestershire.
Information discovered in December 2001 conclusively proved that George Edwin Collett was not George Collett (Ref. 1N63) of Leonard Stanley. That gentleman married Harriet Frape of Eastington near Stroud and ended up later in his life living at Altrincham in Cheshire, where he was a carpenter and joiner.
That then only leaves George Edwin Collett to be the one baptised at Leonard Stanley on 20^th June 1822, the son of Henry and Ann Collett. Since 2001 no further details had been added to this family line until that is, Kelvin Parker, of Christchurch in New Zealand, managed to unearth the details of the family line of William Henry Collett, the youngest child of the aforesaid George Edwin Collett, for inclusion in the revised edition of the file in March 2014.
Appendix
The continuation of the article published in the New Zealand Truth magazine on 8^th December 1927 under the heading “First Cousin who thought He Came First”
The story told by Lawyer Sinclair, and which was backed up by George when he entered the box, was a sorry tale of a gay Lothario whose long suit seemed to be poaching on another man's preserves. Of course, Welsh was most charming of manner, and being a first cousin of George, he was a persona grata, so to speak, in his home after the formalities of introducing him to his wife were completed. However, it was not very long before the fickle Evelyn, in spite of home cares and four young children, had lost her heart to Welsh, the welsher of another man's wife. And thereby hangs the tale. Neither Welsh nor the erring Evelyn thought it necessary to defend the suit and George romped home with his decree and damages. When, on March 26, 1919, George and Evelyn left on the honeymoon trip, both were deeply in love, and when they settled down to home-making in Dunedin, life seemed one long round of happiness. Time went by and they set up the nucleus of a family. The Colletts were truly happy until towards the end of last year, when Alfred Frederick Welsh appeared on the scene. His arrival was the prelude to much trouble and heartburning, but it was some time before Collett realised just what sort of a man his first cousin was. At this time the Collets had moved from Dunedin and were living in Addington, Christchurch, hence the meeting with Welsh, who is an engineer employed by Anderson's, Ltd., in the Cathedral City. Collett was delighted to take him along and introduce him to Mrs Collett and, being a relative, he of course had access to the home whenever he liked. Welsh traded fully on his friendship with Collett to pull the wool over his eyes and deceive him as to his real intentions.
They were anything but honourable, and he lost no opportunity of impressing himself upon his cousin's wife in a manner that any self-respecting husband would strongly object to. But, convinced of Welsh's friendship, and as he was a relative, Collett suspected nothing. He was, as he told the court, living on the happiest terms with his wife and he had no reason to think his affection for her was not reciprocated. But some time later he had reason to revise his opinion. One day as he was leaving work, Welsh met him outside, saying he had been up at the house but did not like to stay there when Collett was not present. George thought little of this at the time, but when he and Welsh finally arrived home Evelyn "burst into a cloud of tears" and then rushed into the kitchen. Wondering what all the fuss was about, and very much perturbed, Collett followed her out and asked her what the matter was. But never a word did she vouchsafe in explanation.
Lawyer Sinclair: ‘Had you had any serious quarrels with your wife up to that stage?’ — ‘No.’ ‘From then onward did you notice any change in your wife's affection for you?’ — ‘Yes, I did; she cooled off. Her affection for me faded right away.’ When once he realised that a crisis was pending in his married life, Collett left for Dunedin, taking his wife with him. But by this time Evelyn's heart had been well and truly snared by the welshing first cousin. Collett told the court that about a week after he and his wife returned to Dunedin she cleared out and left him. And very cunningly was the departure staged by the wife. ‘One day she had to go out into town on business,’ said Collett. ‘At that time we were staying with my own people, and as she left the house she told my mother she would not be long.’ His Honour: ‘Were you present at the time?’ — ‘No, I was at work.’ His Honour: ‘Well, you cannot give us hearsay evidence.’ Lawyer Sinclair: ‘Just tell the court what you know of your own knowledge.’ ‘Well, I had neuritis at the time.......’ Collett began to explain, but the judge interrupted him. ‘What has that got to do with it?’ asked his honour. Counsel: ‘He is just leading up to the point, sir.’ The Judge: ‘But what has neuritis got to do with it?’
Collett forgot his neuritis at his counsel's invitation and went on to tell what had happened when Evelyn cleared out. ‘The same day I met her on the street and she told me she was off, and wheeling round got away quick and lively’ said he. Counsel: ‘Now, up to that time had your wife been a good mother to the children?’ — ‘Yes, absolutely.’ Lawyer Sinclair then put in two written confessions supplied by Welsh and Mrs Collett. Mrs Collett was interviewed at the house where she was staying with Welsh at 288 Madras Street, Christchurch, by W. R. Lascelles, a solicitor, to whom she admitted misconduct with Welsh. Welsh, when he was interviewed at the same address later, also made a similar admission and added that he and Mrs Collett had been living together as Mr and Mrs Welsh since March last. ‘The question for you, gentlemen, is to decide what is the value of this woman who has proved false to her marriage vows’ remarked the judge when addressing the jury on the question of damages. ‘The woman was living happily with her husband until the co-respondent came along, and the presumption will be that he lured her away, knowing that she was the wife of another man.’ His honour pointed out that the correspondent, who was described as an engineer, was probably a wages man, and the jury would have to consider that fact when assessing damages, if any. The jury did not take long to decide and brought back a verdict for £300 damages. The Judge then entered the decree nisi and gave judgment for the amount awarded. A costly wooing for Welsh.