A Murderer.

Manawatu Herald, 24 January 1893, Page 3

A Murderer.

# In a series of articles headed "In gaol for libel " Haggen mentions the case of a Maori prisoner, which points a moral. He writes. Behind the garden id the gaol dairy. -The dairyman is a Maori prisoner, and he milks the cows, feeds them, and delivers the milk to head-quarters. A paddock adjoining the garden forms grazing accom^ modation, and green feed for winter is grown in this garden. the Terrace Gaol we thns find dairying carried on in a style more I scientific than on many a dairy j farm • i This Maori prisoner:!?, a/big hand, j some fellow with nothing of the j cviminai in his appearance. He is i as much trusted by the / .officers of the gaol as one of themselves, and receives great consideration. Pie looks, after the poultry and works in the ; garden when not ; engaged, in j addition to, attending to the dairy I He takes as great an interest in maintaining the regulations as the gaoler. He found a Chinese prisoner making love to the servant girl in ' the house of a Wellington citizen ad* j jacent to the gaol, and after he had i watched the exchange of love letters through a window for a time, he! promptly suppressed the little game, -i as. even a batchelor Chinaman is not permitted to carry on a courtship when he is detained by Her Majesty's. Government. The result was serious for 'John.' His peregrinations to the garden wail were ended, •and he was ordered to the hard* labour gang at the fortifications. Curiosity induced me to wait an opportunity of finding but what crime the Maori had committed, so I asked a warder,' whose story came with a shock \yhen he told me he was sen-! tenced for life for one of the most brutal murders he had known. That a man like this native could commit such a crime seemed {inexplicable, so I got the story from the man's own lips, and on a subsequent occasion/ finding him alone in the gar-; den, I asked him what he was there for. Seldom have I seen a man more aftected as he told me his story. " Your ou rsed Pakeha drin k, •' ■ said" he "made me a murderer." He described how drink had been put in his way, how it maddened him, and how in a drunken freak he had murdered his wife. He had an idea of jealousy into his head, got an axe, asked his wife to help him to sharpen it, and when that was d >ne he attacked her with it, hacking her to pieces in a brutal manner. He was not aware of the nature of the deed" till it was done. He assured me that if he could get out he would never touch drink again, and he gpoke strongly of the action of the Pakeha in introducing drink amongst the Maori people. He said hopefully that he thought he should be released, as Mr Joyce, M.H.8., was working bard Jfco get him out He had been" in prison about nine years, and f understand it is the in tention • the Government to release him when he has completed his tenth year. There' is no doubt that the man is harmless in a sober state of mind, andjwhen jbhe_ gaol will never see' Him again. The story is a strong argument for the prohibitionist^, and adds another to the long Hat °f cases of men and women otherwise harmless, who become j criminals through strong drink and \ help to fill the gaols and asylums.

This native is a general favorite abotlfc the prison. He is kept with the bast class 1 of prisoners. The in j irocliiction of the Kiwis' to , the Gaol have been quite a boon to h'iiri, as he has named them and looks after them. I suppose they remind him ot his former home in a pah in the mountain fastnesses.