Native Row at Manutahi.

Patea Mail, 22 April 1882, Page 3

Native Row at Manutahi.

A MYSTERIOUS DEATH,

Inquiries made at Manutahi yesterday enable us to give the following narrative of a painful affair. On Tuesday afternoon a number of natives returning from Parihaka (where a meeting had been forcibly suppressed) met some Mokoia natives at Manutahi, and the lot had drinks at the hotel. The Mokoia natives were coming from the south side, and some had been drinking before reaching Manutahi, one woman being so drunk that.she lay on the roadside stupefied while the others,gossiped around the: hotel. The natives: returning from Parihaka were - in ill-humor,.caused probably by the Constabulary having stopped their: attempted; meeting, • and cleared them out;, They discussed this affair among 7 themselves until some of them became rOwdyi ; ; The first squabble was between a native —Jarid his wife. ; They had one horse between them, rind both wanted it. The' man wished the woman to walk while he rode. She refused, and returned to the hotel. He followed angrily and told the assistant .(Mr Gallagher’s, cousin) Li not to. let her, in.-,. She pushed,, intp; the hotel; while his back was turned, and then the native used abusive language to. the assistant* accusing him of keeping his waihona when she ought to go. home. Some hustling ensued, and the Maori and his waihena were shut blitside. ; •Noisy talk and threats became general. Mr Gallagher 'told the natives he would not serve any more ‘drink'; that they had eqoughj and-tniist; go,, 3 . One powerful young , native insisted on more beer, and raged at the front of the bar like a lunaticMr Gallagher and the. mistress .were then behind the Ear,. and a number of native men had crowded in front shouting and swearing as if determined to have a row.' While Mr Gallagher was behind the bar writing, drying to take no notice; the noisiest of- the Maoris lifted the counter-’ flap to get in behind the bar, and seizing a wood mallet bh a barrel he rushed at Mr Gallagher (almost 'knocking the inis-, tress down), seized Inin by the whisker, and tried to'strike him with the ; mallet. The blow missed its mark in the scuffle, and Mr Gallagher’s,cousin rushed in from, the yard and, being a strong man, stopped the assault with: some difficulty. The Maori was pushed from behind: the bar by Mr Gallagher and his: cousin, and a -wild struggle-then ensued among the noisy’ crowd of Maoris in front'of the bar, they shouting like fiends and swearing they would pull the house down. The Maori who made the, 7 first attack Bad the mallet still in his. hand trying to hit the white men* and did hit Mr> Gallagher’s cousin on the forehead. The mallet-head came off, and the Maori continued to flourish the slick. The natives wtere eventually pushed outside, and the row and struggling continued in front : of the house. Three or four Maoris, were pulling at eacli of the Gallagher’s, and the scene looked dangerously wild for a few moments. pno. Maori had a bottle of liquor in his hand (obtained, it is said, before he reached Manutahi), .and he aimed a blow pt Mr Gallagher’s; cousin,. - narrowly missing his head. warded off the blow during the scuffle, else it might have been a fatal; settler. The Maori afterwards flourished the bottle, threatening what he would do; and in his fury life smashed the bottle on’ the ground. Some byestanders at Mr Wbittern’s store had by this time crossed over to stop the melee, as the publican and his assistants' were getting overmatched in their defensive warfare. The doors of the hotel were then closed, leaving the Maoris outside; but the}' talked about breaking the windovys and pulling, rthe house ffown. The Maoris seemed to treat this ,fts another, evidence (after the, Parihaka affair two days before) that the; Maoris,were.being put down by pakehas*:and it was a contest of races. The Maoris rushed round to the yard and back door, trying to push in that way. More noise and swearing took place there. Mr Gallagher took up arack-piri(a hand}' light piece of wood) and defended the door-way with it, warning the Maoris that he would hit any who attempted to rush in. Tt is said lie did hit .one noisy Maori on the head, stunning him so that he partly fell. This quietened the natives, who gradually went away. They s left J about dusk; most ! of them riding on horses. It is said the native who was hit rode away'towards Mokoia, where a number of them went, the others coming southward. Two natives were met riding at a furious

pace towards Mauawapou bridge, a little later (he same eveniiij; ; Mr Slattery, carrier, being one witness to this. Next morning Mr Martin Mahon, riding from Hawera, saw the dead body of a Maori lying on the road side near Manawapou bridge. He seemed to have fallen from a horse, but no lioise was near.

The Mokoia natives came that day and fetched the dead body to their pah. A tangi was held on Thursday, a crowd of natives going to Mokoia from adjacent settlements. Some white men from around Manutahi also wont to the pah, and saw the body. It wa° afterwards buried according to the Maori manner.

REFUSING to EXHUME the BODY. The police began to make inquiries as to the Maori’s death. Sergeant Donovan from .Patea* Sergeant Cahill from;Hawera, and Detective Jeffrey from Wanganui*, visited the pah at Mokoia, arid after getting some native evidence they pointed out the importance of having a doctor to examine the bod}' (then buried) to ascertain whether the blow on the head caused death. The father of the dead man expressed horror at the, idea of taking up the body for a doctor, to cut it (that being the father’s idea) ; nud the other Maoris made quite’a scene when they heard that the body was to ; be: taken up. for a doctor, to examine it. Persuasion seemed to -be lost on them. The ; proposal seetned to them so revolting that they got angry, and it was hardly safe to continue the argument. . The Maori notion is : that a dead body will rise in the next " world exactly as it fell ; and they dread being mutilated after death*.bccansfe 1 of the horrid spectacle presented when the body rises in the hex j; world. Hence (lie tendency in their warfare to mutilate their enemies, as a means of spoiling the' enemy’s presentableness in the future state.

Unless the body can be"exhumed and examined by a doctor, there can be no precise evidence as to the cause of death. There are two presumptions : either that the blow made the Maori unable to reach home, arid lie died bh the road ; or that being partly drunk, and much excited, he rode a\vay ; at.; a furious pace, as, Maoris often do, and fell 7 from his horse; the fail causing death. The natives say there was a large wound on the head-.

It is not yet known what course the Government . will take ; for if the body lias to be exhumed for.medicalexamination prior to the Coroner’s inquest, It will have to be done by force, and that, means a serious (rouble. It is ti.simple, matter, but the natives might take it as an outrage on their burial customs and on their tenderest feelings. . - n THE INQUEST. Dr Gibbes, coroner from New Plymouth, opened an inquest on Thursday. The jury went to Mokoia pah and viewed the body,

before burial. The evidence of pne native was taken. Tarilia, brother-in-law of deceased, said : I last saw the deceased ;alive.-at Manutahi. Yesterday morning I found his dead body on the Manutahi side of the Manawapoii bridge. Theibody was lying on its back on the grass. I did n not move the body, but went to the pah and told Raugihaeta and the other Maoris. In the morning I wont out for the purpose of seeking Te Whiu, as the tribe had missed deceased during the night/ At daylight'yesterday morning, I 3aw deceased’s horse,with saddle and bridle bn it, in the pah. lat once-got ori deceased’s horse* and went in the direction of Manutahi/ The hofsb was a quiet one, and FHo not think it had thrown deceased. 1 ’ 1 The Coroner then adjourned the inquest till next Monday, for a post-mortem examination of the body by a medical man. It is not expected that the natives will permit the body to be taken rip.