JOHNSON MURDER
RAMEKA ON TRIAL. (By Telegraph — l'er Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 4. At the Rameka murder trial, the case was described as rather an extraordinary one by Air Noble, in opening the defence. The fact Unit the accused had kill’d the woman canid not be disputed. “You have an eyewitness,” said counsel; “but it does not follow that accused is guilty of tllb crime of murder.” It was the reason of a man which made him accountable for bis actions, said counsel, and a deprivation of his reason acquitted him of crime. If a man was provoked into a sudden frenzy so that he lost all self-control, then a jury would be justified in finding him guilty cl manslaughter. The only evidence was that the woman had been backed about in a maniacal fury. When the ae•usod was 15J years old. lie went to the war in France, and there in two and a-lial.' years’ service he had his health permanently injured, continued Mr Noble. Even since then be bad been in and out of hospital. This Ulan and this Unhappy woman wel'e the closest of lovers. Ha did not know that she was hhU'rifed Until after the tragedy. Evidence woiild be called t<; show there was talk of marriage between thetn. “Then, without any warning, there came u sudden disillusionment, and all the fiecnsed’s dreams of love and happiness came clattering about his ears,” continued counsel. The treatment Rameka received so worked on bis mind that he was practically driven to a state of delirium.
Counsel continued that Ramnka had told the woman that be was going to kill hinisel , and that slip had replied: “Go away, you nigger! We do not want to have anything more to do with you 1” If there was one thing more than another that Maoris were proud of said Air Noble, it was that they were not “niggers.” To them that name was an unpardonable insult. Rameka went into a frenzy, and lie remembered nothing more about it until be was in the Auckland Hospital, and lie was charged with murder. He certainly did not know the nature and quality of his act, nor that what he was doing was wrong. A second ground of the defence was that, by a sudden insult, accused was so provoked that lie lost control o> himself. Several witnesses gave evidence that, on occasions, accused acted strangely. A fellow worker said lie seemed to be queer The hearing was adjourned.
TRIAL CONTINUES. AUCKLAND, August 6. The heating t»F tHe evidence in defence of George Rilmckn, oh trial on a charge of murdering Mrs Gwendoline Johnson, was continued to-day, Mnmuii Brown, a .Maori ganger, .said that deceased had come to his lodging with Rameka and lie. often went to her flat. They seemed to behave “like man and wife.” He saw Rameka give her £24, his winnings at the races.
The ambulance driver who took Rameka to the hospital said his symptoms were similar to the after effects of an epileptic fit. George Graham, an authority on the .Maori race, aid that they were very iealous of their racial pedigree. A Maori who was called a “nigger” would receive a mental shock and would “see dark” equivalent to the Euiopean “suing rod.” ihe accused Rameka then gave evidence through an interpreter. He said that lie had three sisters and thirteen brothers. Only he and one sister were now alive. A first cousin of his had killed her baby, another cousin at Waitara had killed her adopted child. He went to the war at the ag of fifteen and was tlire over two years. Raneka said at the war he was digging trenches and also looking after
wire entanglements in “No Man’s Land. He was gassed at Messines and when lie returned to New Zealand lie received hospital treatment for war wounds. Sometimes lie suffered from a depression, 'which seemed to darken his outlook. He knew the deceased as Miss Driscoll. She t n ld him she was a well-to-do woman from England; tliat she came from Wellington and was engaged while there. The first night he met her she told him Mrs lveesing, lie landlady, was her aunt. A Her he and she had been together for while lie loved b?r, and she responded. When lie gave her it was arranged that the fact should not be made known to her family. She told him she was waiting for money from her family’s estate in Wellington, and would repay him in three months.
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Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1931, Page 5
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757JOHNSON MURDER Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1931, Page 5
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