MAORI MAID MARTHA.

NZ Truth, Issue 122, 19 October 1907, Page 6

MAORI MAID MARTHA.

Is She an Habitual Criminal?

That browm-faced pluni, Martha Tainui— a 32-year-old girl with 50 convictions for brazen fraud— has dropped into it m Christchuroh this time all right. Her craze for false pretences amounted to an absolute mania, and it's a wonder she doesn't take down her obstinate, obdurate ' gaoler, or gaoleress by false pretences. An absolute adept at the game, it is pretty certain that she will take down the devil if ever she meets him ; but Martha may repent, and they tell it m bible lore, and from the pulpit and the street corner, that

ANY OLD SINNER CAN* REPENT, and be saved. But if Martha gets to the land of the blessed she will assuredly take some angel down for her concertina, or whatever article of instrumental produce she makes a celestial row with. Be that as it may, the black-eyed Martha, with a brown face, and a blue skirt, and the temper of hades, is doomed with a big doom. The lady has got three months on each charge of three for false pretending, and is to be sent to the Supreme Court for sentence under the Habitual Offenders Act. And that will mean something than will make Maori Martha's hair waltz gray.