SHOT FIRED AT CONSTABLE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24912, 27 June 1946, Page 3

SHOT FIRED AT CONSTABLE

CHARGED OF ATTEMPTED MURDER

(P.A.) HAMILTON, June 26. Pleading not guilty to a charge of the attempted) murder of Constable Clemence at • Ngaruawahia on April 20, Hikoi Te Rangi Rawiri, a labourer, aged 40, was committed for trial by Mr S. J Paterson, S.M., to-day. rinmnn™ Giving evidence, Constable clemence said he was about to enter the post office •when he was stopped and was told that Mrs Gatchell wanted to see him in her shop, where a Maori was making a nuisance of himself. The constable first saw Rawiri near the doorway, of a grocer s shop, next to a milk bar, where he was standing with a rifle. The constable told him not to be silly, and to put the rifle down. "You are the man lam after, i know the law,” was Rawiri’s reply. Kawiri told him not to go any closer, and brought the rifle to the firing position. The witness moved out to gain the cover of a telegraph pole. He remembered hearing the report of a discharge immediately afterward, and receiving the shock of a bullet. He then collapsed on to the footpath. He was. about 10 or 12 yards from the accused, when the shot was fired. He had known Rawiri for about five years, continued the constable. However, he had not seen him very often during that time. Rawiri was friendly toward him. He knew no reason why Rawiri should bear him a grudge. Evidence was given by a witness of the incident, Lewis Houghton, of Tauwhare, who said the shooting appeared to be deliberate. He saw no provocation. Similar evidence was given by Arthur Lincoln Laidlaw, of Auckland. Thomas Sunnex, who at that time was the licensee of the Waipa Hotel, said that when Rawiri entered the hotel the Maori said to him: "I own this hotel. You go up and get my bed and bath ready. The witness replied: “All right, wait a few tninutes until I find my keys.” Rawiri then said: “Very good. I 'get some ice cretin.” Rawiri left the hotel. Later the witness saw him with a rifle, and he telephoned Constable Clemence to find that he had jut left home. Dr. R. S. A.. Graham said that when he examined Clemence at the hospital he found him bleeding from a bullet wound in a lung. The injury w£s causing considerable distress, and there was a bullet wound below the right armpit and toward the back. The bullet waa lodged in the upper left forearm, thus traversing the back of Constable Clemence’s chest. During the first week the constable’s condition was serious and the wound might * ve proved fatal. It wag due to penicillin treatment that the patient made such good progress.