FOUND LYING IN DRAIN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 4, 28 September 1937, Page 9

FOUND LYING IN DRAIN

-Presa Associution.)

Eiderly Maori Dies from Exposure

(By Telegraph-

MORRINSVILLE, Last Night. A well-known Maori farmer, Tamarereti Hotene, aged 63, was found early on Saturday morning lying in a small roadside drain near his home in Kereone road, about a milo from Morrinsville. He had apparently fallen in the drain when returning home from Morrinsville in the ' evt-ning. When found by another Maori, Ken 'Puwhenua, he was in a weak conditi-on, and he died soon afterward. 1

Tamarereti Hotene, who was a widower, had- lived in the iMorrinsville district ali his life, being a grandson of the original Hotene, Vbo was living at Morrinsville before the coming of the whit-e settlers nearly 70 years ago. ^ Evidence was given at the inquest by Ken puwhenua that when he left Hotene on the previous afternoon deceased was not intoxicated, and was quite capable of walking home. Witness found Hotene wedged between the two sides of the drain, face upward, and partly covered by water. Dr. C. H. King said that in his opinion Hotene had died from exposure, A verdiet of death by lnisadventure was returued. toc-imi i i mtmmwtwmmrnmmtmm '