S.M.'s Outspoken Comment At Inquest

Chronicle (Levin), 25 June 1949, Page 5

S.M.'s Outspoken Comment At Inquest

w Press Afssociation)

(Per

NEW PLYMOUTH, June 24. "Tn mv capacity as coroner, I point out that this fatality shows the great evil that can result from the introduction of lirpior into Maori communities," sfated Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., wiien the adjourned inquest into ihe death of TTuri Uanganui Taueki, also known as Alex Tueki, at the New Plymouth Publie ITospital on May 2, was coneluded this morning. Mr. Woodward found that Tueki died from a contusion of the left side of the brain which he suffered in the eourse of a fight with Moses Mathews, at Puniho pa, on the night of April 27. The deeeased and the man who assaulted hina "wero* brothers-in-law, Mr. Woodward said. They had spent the dav together and returned together as friends to the Puniho pa. The quarrel that resulted in the death of the deeeased arose out of the merest trifle. Tt is mv opinion that his death would not have oecurred but for the drink consumed in his house by the two of them. If the other men present at the fight had not also consumed liquor they would have intervened and saved the deeeased 's life. Mr. Woodward continued that, in his capacity as a Magistrate, he thought it his duty to give a warning that, althougli the supply of liquor to a Maori for eonsumption off licensed premises was no longer illegal, Section .42 of the Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act, 1045, prohibited any person, whether Maori or not, from taking or introdncing intoxieating liquor into anv Maori village as defined in the Act, savo under medieal authority or for religious purposes. "The penaltv for doing so is a fine or imprisonment," he coneluded. "For the rirotection of this splendid race, I shall, in a proper case, enforce this prohibition with the utmost rigour of the law."