MAORI CONVICTED OF MAN SLAUGHTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2462, 3 August 1922, Page 3

MAORI CONVICTED OF MAN SLAUGHTER.

RESULT OF DRIVING LIGHTLESS CART. Auckland, August 2. At the Supreme Court a verdict of manslaughter with a recommendation of mercy was returned against a Maori named Nuku Meremana. In respect of the death of Howell Richards Robert Williams as the outcome of a collision at Thames on April 15, between a motor car and a cart driven by accused. The case for the Crown was that the cart had no light® and consequently was not seen by the motor driver in time to avert a collision in rounding a bend. The left-hand shaft of the cart pierced the windscreen, striking Williams on the head. The car was travelling about fourteen miles an hour. Besides Meremana the cart contained two white men and three Maori women, all six showing signs of liquor, though accused was not drunk. Counsel for the defence called no evidence, but emphasised that all the witnesses agreed that accused was driving slowly and prior to the , accident was on the correct side of the road. He argued that accused was not the essential cause of the accident and it could not be said his negligence was sufficiently culpable to make him guilty of manslaughter. Sentence was deferred.