Family Fight At Matata On Xmas Eve: Armed Combat Alleged

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 27, 5 March 1948, Page 5

Family Fight At Matata On Xmas Eve: Armed Combat Alleged

A family dispute (in which the participants alleged an axe, an iron bar, a fence batten and a twelve inch rasp as well as a lot of ingults had figured) was aired when the police accused Janie Huriwaka (defended by Mr Barry) of having assaulted Polly Marino at Matata on Christmas Eve. After listening to a full account of a very bitter squabble, the Magistrate dismissed the information.

Summarised, evidence showed that Mrs Huriwaka is sister-in-law to Mrs Marino, who was on a visit from Rotorua to another sister who occupies a house at Matata, which Mrs Hurikawa claims she has no right to occupy. Mrs Huriwaka had a garden there and, though Mrs Marino denied it, alleged that Mrs Marino, had pulled up most of the vegetables after an argument in which she (Mrs Huriwaka) was menaced with an axe. Testimony agreed that Mrs Huriwaka went over to the garden in the evening to pick the remains of the vegetables for Christmas dinner. Then, the defendant alleged, Mrs Marino, came to the window and insulted her. $o she went over and pulled down the curtains from the window, tore them up and threw them at Mrs Marino, who got a bit peeved and dashed after her with a batten off the gate. Mrs Marino’s story was a bit different, after that point. She said her sister-in-law had grabbed her only frock with the curtains and was ripping that up, too. Moreover, she said she was unarmed until the other woman'slashed her nose w-ith a 12-inch rasp. Then she said she picked up a stick. According to Mrs Huriwaka, what she picked up was a heavy fire iron. -

Ben Huriwaka, her husband, said that,. too. He also told the Court he was too busy looking after the frightened children to try to separate the combatants. But he’ was sure about the iron bar. He was •only a few inches away from it. Mrs Huriwaka, going over the events of the day, said she had had an axe swung at her and a spade thrown at her in the morning. She claimed she had also been grossly insulted. Henare Marino, the complainant’s husband, said he had “a slight idea” ♦ there had been rows between the women. He was in the house at the time.

Mrs Huriwaka sent a smile round the Court when she said Sergeant Farrell had told her he was sick of the family, They were always fighting.

When Sergeant Collinge suggested she was the cause of all the trouble, she sighed, “So they say.” Mr Barry, for the defence, claimed Mrs Huriwaka had been driven almost to desperation by the treatment she had received at the hands of Mrs Marino and her relatives. He pleaded provocation. As the tension between the factions in Court mounted, there were menacing whispers and gestures passed between supporters and, after the case was dismissed, two of the witnesses were seen in spirited altercation in the strefet.