The Gisborne Murder Case

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 7, 2 July 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Murder Case

SENTENCE OF DEATH!. X " [PEK.UNITHD SR?Bj3 ABSOCIATKHT.I >. . j > i ••'_-JSw?qbkk, June 30. The case I|gaihßt the four Maoris for,the njurder of Nuku, an old man, 9 was concludedylhis evening. IThere was only a little evidence for -the defence, attempting to j>rove an alibi. The jury were absent half-an-hour, and returned a verdict ofjg^ilty against the three male Natives^ Te Hau, Te. ITri j and not guilty' against _tne* woman. Te Hau and $?e/ v Urijf in reply to the usual question, skid sentence ought nofrto be passed onthem: ; Aporo said nothing. The Chief Justice,. in passing sentence, expressed a hope that it would have an effect on the minds of the Natives, and sh6# them that the English law could not be influenced ; by the fact thafr they" were^iacttiated -by superstition;^ He also added -it wa» not for him to say 'whether the Grown; would deeni it right to^earry out the sentence of law then- passed. The sentence of death was then- passed in the usual form, r ; When about to be removed, Aporo said he wished to say something and began, . li It ;is now nothing ; the iury have found out. What they have found^^t^TTnV.-^'f 1 ! I .:*^ was stopped by Te TJri, and said no more. The prisoners .had been very listless, and apparently indifferent during the trial, but became dejected and under strong emotion when they heard the result. The woman, acquitted was named Ereni farewhai, and was the mother of the young man whom the murdered man was alleged to have bewitched. The priaoners will be removed to Napier at once,' The: case made out against them was f a fairly, strong one oh circumstaniial eyidence, but it had been the' general expectation thatthey would escape.; _,Th,ey are all youngs under thirty," and of rather a poor type of Maori. Their hapu is inclined ' to HauhauismT~*Nuku was alleged to have f bewitched several , eels which Efen^'s adn ate, and on becoinihg convinced he was betwitched he diedt-as usual in such case's, unsuccessful attempts being made to induce Nuku to undo the bewitching. Nuku and bis. wife, were shot in his w hare at midnight, aid the whare set fire Ito, the iodieP' being •'- hprribiy burned. There' seems to "be little doubt thatthe whole hapu were more or less privy to the murder. The prisoner Te TJri was found guilty as accessory before the fact. Aporo is supposed to have fired both shots. It is understood to have been largely through the influence of Wi P«re,-M.H.It., who was a relative of the murdered woman, that ithe case was? got up and proved successful, as it wad feared at first there would be no evidence to be got from the Maoris. The Grown entered a nolle prosequi in the second charge against the same prisoners for the murder of Qiriate, wife of