MAORI TOHUNGAS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 91, 26 April 1901, Page 1

MAORI TOHUNGAS.

THE ALLEGED CASE IN THIS DISTRICT. In his ’ address to the Grand Jury yesi. terday His Honor Mr Justico Conolly said : ? The remaining ease is one of a very peculiar nature. It is that of a woman—an elderly woman, I believo—who is charged with manslaughter by causing the , death of a man when attempting to care for his health. The law is clear that anyone w'ho attempts medical treatment or anything which is supposed to aid in prolonging life or curing disease is bound to have reasonable knowledge and skill. If a person who knows nothing about medicine or nothing about surgery undertakes the medical or surgical treatment of a patient, he or she does so at their own risk, and if death ensues from gross mismanagement, that is' clearly a ease of manslaughter. The man who has us - fortunately lost his life appears to have been an able • bodied Maori, only 23 years of age. He was a married man. On the 4th of November be was ill with typhoid fever. From the 4th to the 14th November he was attended by Dr, Hughes, a medical man in this town, and everything was done for him that eould be done. His wife and another woman nursed, and, as far as the' doctor knows, everything that the doctor ordered was carefully attended to. Part of the instructions were that he was not to have any solid food. He was to have nothing but a milk diet, and he was to be kept in bed. On the 14th Nevember, when the man was not thoroughly recovered, though he was improving, and was likely to recover in a very short time if proper treatment had been continued, the doctor was told by the man’s wife that lie was not to attend any further, and he did not see him again. The reason for tins was that the wife and the man had been told by the prisoner to bring the man to her place. He was taken to her house by her instructions. She said the deceased was not suffering from typhoid at all, 'but ho was suffering from the witchcraft of some Native,'and that she would cure him in two days. She adopted the extraordinary process in the case of a man recovering from typhoid fever, and only just out of bed, of ordering him to go into the sea, and both the man and his wife seem to have obeyed this woman as if she were a superior being. She made the man go into the sea, where she dipped his head and entirely submerged him under the water. A wave knocked £

him down, and the prisoner laughed and said it was not lie who had fallen into the water, but the spirit that was in him. He would receive a shock as the result of that, and from that time he was kept in a tent, and was very much worse. They also gave him potatoes and fish, which, as tho doctor will say, was a bad tiling to give a man in such a condition. But that was not sufficient. That was in. the afternoon and evening. The next day, before' sunrise, tho prisoner herself took him to the sea. The wife remonstrated, but the prisoner said the man would be better in ono or two days, and she herself ducked him in the sea several times, and again they gave him potatoes and fish, and also, I believe, flax water, which, I believe, is a purgative, and if so is about the worst thing to give a■ man in that state. The unfortunate man died about 24 hours after. Perhaps I have gone into the evidence at rather unnecessary length, but it is the evidence taken in the Court below. If that is the evidence elicited here, it is about as clear a ease as could be. I think it is a very shocking thing that at this day there should be such superstition existing amongst tho Maoris, and thero is no doubt that, through the improper treatment of Maori sorcalled doetois, many valuable lives have been lost. I trust you will give this ease most careful consideration.