THE LATE MURDER AT TETEKO.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 337, 1 December 1875, Page 3

THE LATE MURDER AT TETEKO.

(from our own correspondent.) "Whakatane, Nov. 29. "When I write that a murder was committed near To Tkeo a fortnight ago, your readers will ask why I did not lot you know before. But it was only the bare fact that I could have told you last mail, and that I supposed would have been known at Tanranga. Now, however, the murder .has been consummated, the man has died, and official inquisition has been made to satisfy the law, so that I am now in a position to give you. a record of tho sad affair from beginning to ending. Tukino to Marae was a man of nearly sixty years of ago, who lived an industrious inoffensive life on his paternal acres at Kokohinau, a Maori settlement near To Teko. Ho had never professed, and was not credited with having dealings with tho Evil One, Himiona to Bua "belongs to the same tribe as his victim, i.e., to a branch of t c Ngatiawa, of Wh.nka.tano, and is much younger. Ho has a brother in the Armed Constabulary, and a sister tho wife of another member of the force. Ho himself had as wife an Ibowera woman, and ho lived with her tribe at Ahikerc-ui. Of Into three persons of tho Urewera have died, and (as is usual in all deaths among Maoris) the relatives have puzzled their brains to find out a special cause, for which they delight to look to the world of spirits, i.e., departed spirit s or perhaps evil spirits likewise, tho latter having a human agent (a witch or wizard). Last month a young girl, one of the above three, Ngawini, daughter of Himionabs wife by another husband died; and forthwith tho relatives, upon what data does not appear, came to the conclusion that these three had all been bewitched, and their deaths caused by the evil machination or witchcraft of Tukino te Marae. Hindoiia spurred on by his fealty to Ids adopted tribe, and incited by his wife and others, determined or was appointed to toko revenge by killing the alleged wizard. This evil work ho carried out on the loth hist. On that day Tukino, Te Eanapia, To IJku, and a woman were busy planting, tho first-named being bidden by a large tupaki bush from the others. The three others saw Himiona, gun in hand, advancing towards Tuldno, and presently heard tho discharge. They then saw'him hastily retreating, handling a cartridge as if to load again. They were so much taken, aback that they did not think of pursuit (so they declare) till Himiona was lost to sight in the scrub. He is supposed to have gone to the neighborhood of Ahikereru and to be in hiding and fed by bis •wife, to whom he must now' appear as, a faithful knight, a hero, and her avenger of blood. No warning whatever seems to have been given of tho intended assault. The bullet entered just over the region of the bladder, perforated the intestines and the bladder, and came out at the back of the pelvis. .From the first the wound was by all set down as mortal, and the poor fellow' seemed convinced that his days were numbered. He received every attention from Captain Preoce, commanding A.C. at Te Teko, and likewise from i)r Knyland, the departmental medical man for the district. He died after lingering ton days, the cause of

! death being extravasation of urine, j | and fa-ees at the internal seat of tho I | wound, leading to inflammation, mortification, and death. I On .Saturday last tho District Coroner j held an inquest, and after a fall and ! patient .hearing of all the ho and the jury brought- in a verdict of “ Wilful murder” against Himiona To Eua. Tho verdict will of course j remain on record. Tho Coroner has issued Ins warrant for the apprehension of tho accused, who will be seized should ho dare to show himself in ilvdmed parts. Ilapurona and oilier LivYura chiefs have promised to give him up when (hoy lind him : and this they are all the.more likely to do be. cause ho is not one of thomsidvos. The relatives of Tukino have expressed to the authorities their willingness to leave the matter of apprehension in lawful hands, and fully understand that the Government do not intend to go to war for the apprehension of even a murderer. The question of the evils of witchcraft as practised upon an ignorant and superstitious people is one too large to treat at present, and it would require quite a dissertation to exhaust the subject.