SHOOTING A MAORI GIRL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2157, 24 January 1881, Page 3

SHOOTING A MAORI GIRL.

On the Bth instant (aaya the "New Zealand Herald") a shooting affair took place near Baeo, at the house of a settler named Bobort Warthall. The place is about nine miles from Whangarei. It appeara that a Maori boy named Te Kahu Para Matetihi and a Maori girl named Matetuhiwai were in the house together in the evening. The boy, who ia about ten years of age, told the girl, who ia still younger, to wash up the dishes else he would shoot her. He got the gun, which appears to have been loaded, and ordered the girl to put a blanket around her, and he would ahoot her. She did ao, and lay down on the sofa. He placed the gun on the table, raised the hammer and fired. The charge of shot struck the girl on the left arm, near the shoulder, cutting the flesh away from the bone on the top side of the arm. The bone ia not fractured, but the injuriea are rather severe. The Maoris are doctoring the girl in their own way, and it ia expected that she will reoover. The boy and girl belong to different tribes living' in the Hokianga distriot, and were on a visit to the Eaeo at the time the shooting took plaoe. Constable O'Reilly, of Whangaroa, visited the place on the offence becoming known, but, on account of the extreme youth of the offender, did not arrest the boy. It is expected that the girl will be sufficiently recovered by the 31st instant to be examined by the Resident Magistrate, who is expected to visit the distriot about that time. No cause is assigned for the commission of the offence.