ATTEMPTED SUICIDE FOR LOVE AT ROTORUA.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1687, 15 July 1875, Page 3

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE FOR LOVE AT ROTORUA.

A touching instance of conjugal love and affection ocenrred st Parekaran^i last week. It appears that a chief of Eotorua—Petera Te Pukuatua—has been visiting some distant relatives on the West Coast for the last two yeais, and dnring the time " fell in love," as we Europeans would say, with a lady of that part of the cuuntry, and, without consulting his better half, added her to his domestic establishment, a proceeding quite contrary to all our high church discipline, but exactly in accordance with the example of Petera's long line of 'renowned ancestors. Be this as it may, the first love doss not appear to have been a perfectly willing party to this arrangement, for we find that, on the arrival of the chief and his company at Parekarangi (within a few miles of their old home), Ani is seen to leave tbe house in the direction of the forest, and, shortly afterwards, a, piercing scream thrills through the village, and brings everyone to the scene. Poor Ani, overwhelmed with grief or shame at the approaching meeting with her old friends as the second and perhaps despised companion of the chief, literally "runs up a tree," and, in the hope of ending her sorrows with life, throws herself from the highest branches. She was taken up insensible and bleeding, but alive, and carried on a litter of boughs to Ohinemutu on Friday last by a body of Petera's tribe. She is expected to recover from the injuries received, but whether this may prove a solace or the reverse to Ani's partner or his new companion deponent sayeth not. Judging from these and other Maories countenances, one would be inclined to hazard the opinion thatthemosttragicconsummationwouldaffect them less than the loss of their own importance, which may be somewhat enhanced by the episode of Ani's attempted suicide. But who will attempt to measure the breadth of native eccentricity, or fathom the depths of Maori dissimulation and deceit. Torn as his heart may be by conflicting pa3sions and emotions, the true chief maintains the calm stoicism of a Mahommedan, and that inscrutable expression of countenance found only amongst Europeans on the figure heads of their ships, or the wooden Saracens' heads of their village hostelries.— Ohinemutu Correspondent of the Bay of Plenty Times.