Maori Acquitted On Murder Charge

Chronicle (Levin), 25 May 1949, Page 6

Maori Acquitted On Murder Charge

' ? . NEW PLYMOUTII, May 24. Mosek Matthews, aged 89, farm laFpnr^r, l^eard of his ^cqju,ittal 0^ mur^ cfer impassively in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth tonight. He was ,eharged with killing his brother-in-iaw, Ilurihanganui (Alex) Taueki, 42 years, in the Puniho pa on April 27, but during the. hea.ring the' 'Crown sug^ested thre eviderfce Vbuld support manslaughter q'ather than murder: No evid'ence.was called for Matthews. The main plapk of the defence wras that Matthews acted in self-defence after, ,-extreme provocation from Taueki who/it was submitted, started the fight. The jury took 79 minutes to reach a verdict. For the defence, Mr. R. L. Horn submitted that Taueki was responsible for tlie initial violence, - that he struck several blows and that he made the threat — "I'll kill you" — before Matthews started to fight. It was at this stage, according to the evidence of one witness and Matthews' statement, that Taueki seized Matthews, thereby causing him excruciating pain. "It wa? then and then oniy that Matthews began to hit and hit very hard indeed,' said Mr. Horn. Matthews was suffering pain of a kind that might cause extreme anger and he had need to prevenl a repetition of the hold.

The medieal tetrtimony was that death was caused by broncho pneumonia which eould have been brought on by Taueki 's uneonsciousness, said > Mr. Horn. The medieal evidence had ! not been able to rule out entirely the possibility of infeetion from teeth • eavities following extraction on the day i of the fight. Moreover, the quantity of : liquor Taueki had taken might have ' lowered his resistance. Such matters ; must all be taken into consideration by ■ tlie jury before it could say there was : not a reasonable doubt about the cause of death.

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