WOMAN CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER

NZ Truth, Issue 1176, 14 June 1928, Page 3

WOMAN CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER

Adopted Child Dies After Being Thrashed With Tennis Racquet By Clergyman's Wife "ARMS AND LEGS ONE MASSJOF BRUISES AND ABRASIONS" (From "N.Z; Truth's" New Plymouth Representative.) "t The chastisement of her adopted daughter for an ad of childish rebellion has brought tragedy and despair to the home of the Rev. Kahi Hadfield, of Waitara. Following the thrashing of the child, who died shortly afterwards, the clergyman's wife, Arapera Kaiora, a full-blooded Maori, aged about 37, has been charged u)ith manslaughter. The child was Pirihira Totnuri, ten and a-half years of age.

HOLLOWING the inquest and the Jr magisterial proceedings last week, the accused, wife of the Anglican minister in charge of the native mission at Waitara, pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Pirihira was adopted by Mrs. Hadfield when only a few months old, her •h6me then being at Kaikohe, in the Bay of Islands. She was described by neighbors at Waitara as an inoffensive child, but, on the ■ morning of Sunday, May 20, she was said to have defied her mother, being duly punished. That night a doctor was called in to see the child, but death had ensued before k his arrival. "Purple and swollen from extensive and severe bruising," was the way Dr. W. J. Reid described the child's handa, arms and shoulders after he had seen them during a post-mortem examination at the morgue in New Plymouth. There were bruises on the thighs, back, abdomen and chest, he said.

: The body of Pirihira was fairly well nourished said Dr. Reid in his evidence. !No "bones were fractured. : Syncope, following shock due to severe bodily bruising, was, in his opinion, the cause of death. "Could this have caused the bruises and the wound above the knee?" asked Detective A. B. Meiklejohn, as !he held up the handle of a tennis racquet, from the broken end of whioh, loose gut- ' strings hung. "Yes," replied the doctor. , Despite the fact that the defence was reserved, Lawyer Prichard crossexamined the witness. . There was a slight abnormality of the brain said the medico in reply to a 'question. i This might have been due to a touch of meningitis in the past, though he was not prepared to say it would have affected the child's intelligence or

behavior, though it might have produced epilepsy. The arms and legs were ono mass of bruises an.d, abrasions," he said. Other questions were directed towards discovering whether a child of 10 should have some moral sense. The doctor thought this should be present then, but could not say what would be the best method of correction were it absent. "She met me. at the gate and urged me to hurry to the child, as it was dying," said Dr.. R. L. G. Barclay, when telling of his visit to the Hadflelds at 7,45 p.m. on May 20. Pirihira had apparently die,d just before he arrived at her bedside. Practically from head to foot the body was covered with b.ruises • and abrasions. From thighs to ankles,, the legs were . a mass of coalesced bruises and both hands, were swollen to twice their normal size.

He administered restoratives, but it was no use. She had meant the hiding to be severe, but not as severe as it turned' our, Mrs. Hadfield bad -said. If the brain abnormality- were patiological, there would be less reason for physical correction, the doctor stated, in reply to further questions by Lawyer Prichard. According to extreme modern ideas, all criminals were to be treated as invalids, he added. Pirihira might have been difficult to handle. "At*© you aware that Mi*3. Had- . field had two young children as well; that she assisted in ' the Maori Sunday-school . and the me.dical work of the mission aoon after childbirth?" asked counsel. The doctor admitted that he knew of these things. They might have caused

her to get run down and make her more liable to over-chastise than when normal. Maoris were considered more impulsive than Europeans. "I have several times seen Mr. and Mrs. Hadfield exhibit considerable affection and devotion towards their, children," he said. When he had arrived at the Hadfle'lds' place with Dr. Barclay, Mrs. Hadfield was sitting on her bed in ."an agony of grief," said the Rev. Ca'non G. H. Gavin, vicar of Waitara, "She dared me to do so, when I threatened to take her to Constable La Pouple for swearing,"" the mother had; said to him. The canon had known th© ttadfields for 18 months and had always found Mrs. Hadfield a woman of sweet and kindly disposition. Under normal i conditions* one would never- associate her with the thrashing. Pirihira was a quiet, inoffensive' little girl. Mrs. Jean Baker lived next door to= the Hadfields in Waitara,. but she did

not know of the trouble until the Monday morning, when Rev. Hadfleld asked her to go into his wife; When asked the cause of death/ Mrs. Hadfieid had explained that Pirihira had not been well' sines she fell from her bicycle some weeks before. She had hurt her arm and bruised her side, while her fingers had been stiff up to the time of her death. The mother had tried to grive her paraffin on the previous morning. The child resisted and swore; Mrs: Hadfleld lost her temper and gave Her a thrashing. Pirihira wanted to go> out with an old Maori woman who was staying with them according to a statement Mrs. Hadfieid had made to Constable Palmer the next day. She was told she could not go till she was clean. Thereupon "she, began to take her clothes off and to swear most obscenely" at her mother.