TRIPLE TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1934, Page 10

TRIPLE TRAGEDY

TWO MEN AND A WOMAN

MURDER AND SUICIDE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

GISBOENE, This Day,

A triple tragedy was reported from Whareponga, north of Waipiro Bay, today, two persons, Hori Smith and hi 3 wife, being shot, and George Taylor being found hanging.

It' is believed that all three are Maoris, and that a domestic triangle developed into a tragedy. This morning Hori Smith was found lying on the beach in circumstances pointing to his having been murdered, and on further search being made the other bodies were discovered.

Hori Smith and his wife lived at Tolaga Bay, and Taylor was a resident in the Waiapu area. Recently Taylor and Mrs. Smith decamped together, and they had been living in a nut some two miles from Wharepouga in company with two other men, Wi Moeke and Hauraki. It is known that Hori Smith endeavoured to secure the return of his wife to her home, but without success, and it is likewise public knowledge that he was in the neighbourhood ot Whareponga yesterday intent upon a further endeavour to solve his domestic difficulties.

His body was found on the beach about (i a.m. today by a man named Jack Boyce, who used tho beach as his route on his way to work. Smith had been shot in the throat, and there being no gun in the locality, it was evident that he had been killed in the course of a struggle.

Constable Ryan, of Ruatoria, was called to Whareponga with all speed, and verified the conclusions drawn by Boyco and other's who had seen the body. .Investigations in the locality of the hul formerly -occupied by Taylor and Mrs. Smith with Moeke and Hauraki led to the finding of the bodies of Taylor and Mrs. Smith. The latter was shot fatally, and must have died instantly. ' Taylor had hanged himself a short distance from the hut.