A DEATHBED CONFESSION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3012, 18 March 1926, Page 3

A DEATHBED CONFESSION.

TE KOWHAI MYSTERY SOLVED. Hamilton, March 16. While dying in the Waikato Hospital, Peter Rawiri made a statement to the police completely clearing up the mystery of the tragic explosion at Te Rapa on Tuesday. He admitted that, prompted by jealousy, be had deliberately blown up his wife and cut his own throat. When the inquest on the dead woman, Ngapeti Koti Rawiri, was resumed at the courthouse this morning, Constable Alpin gave evidence that lie was on duty at the hospital on March 11 at 3 p.m., watching Rawiri. Suddenly Rawiri called him over and asked him how his child was getting on. Witness replied, “all right,” and asked Rawiri what had happened to his wife. Rawiri replied, “Oh, she very bad woman. She been living with another man.” Witness then asked how the explosion occurred, and the man replied that he had placed two sticks of gelignite outside the wliare, using some fuse. “You blow her up?” witness had then asked. “Yes,” replied Rawiri, who was quite rational at the time. The coroner returned a verdict that the woman died as the result of injuries wilfully inflicted by her husband with intent to cause her death by means of an explosion of gelignite, while in a fit of jealousy. The verdict on Rawiri was that he committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor and injuring himself in an explosion of gelignite.