WI. BROUGHTON’S SUICIDE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9094, 13 March 1908, Page 2

WI. BROUGHTON’S SUICIDE.

ECHOES OP AN OLD FEUD. Mr William M. Broughton (Wiremui | Partone) was born in Wanganui, -- and, as a boy was adopted by Renata Kawepo, the great Hawke’s Bay chief, at Omahu. He understood that he was to succeed him, especially as Renata had quarrelled with his very able grand neice, Airene Tonore, Mrs G. P. Donnelly. There was a conciliation, however, just before his death, and when Mr Broughton assumed the leadership under a will of Renata, Mrs Donnelly produced a will made in the presence of Archdeacn Williams, ‘'Aixeni is the woman for my will.” There followed much litigation and much trouble, an incident of which was the shooting of a member of Mrs Donnelly’s family, and a state approaching civil war threatened for a time owing to one party desiring to establish ownership by the native custom of ploughing the land. The 'Chief Justice (Sir James Prendergast) decided in favour of Mrs Donnelly, but the Court of Appeal, and ultimately the Privy Council, decided the other way, the latter, if we recollect aright, on the ground that no Maori gentleman of Renata’s standing and intelligence would have made a Will in such bad terms as “Aireni te wahine o tabu wira”—which were just the terms a Maori would have employed as it happened. Immense law costs and subsequent decisions regarding individual blocks of land brought the once great estate down very small when the final washing-up came. ‘Wi,’ or ‘Willie’ Broughton as he was generally known, was a genial sport-loving half-caste, generally popular, and that he should have hung himself was a surprise to most of his very large circle of acquaintances.—Manawatu Daily Times.