ABDUCTION OF A GIRL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9370, 12 February 1909, Page 8

ABDUCTION OF A GIRL.

Press Association. Auckland, February 10. A young Maori answering to the name of Wharemataugi appeared before Mr Justice Edwards at the criminal sessions of the Supreme Court this afternoon on a charge of abducting a girl under the age of sixteen years from the home of her guardians at Taupo. The prisoner was also indicted on a charge of having entered into relations with £li6 girl. The evidence given for the prosecution showed that the Maori girl concerned in the case was fourteen years of age. Her guardian had occasion to ask the prisoner inJNovember last to keep away from bis ward, as she' was only a child, and ha promised to The girl, however, disappaSO louring the night of Decern-' ber j|sh, and was found by her ffosler father and a policeman at dayJ4ght two mornings later sleeping in the same room as the prisoner at a Maori settlement about thirty miles away. , • . , ■, The subject of the abduction stated that she had never told the pirsoner that she was sixteen. She went away with him reluctantly. ruled that it was immaterial to the charge whether the girl went voluntarily or not. The prisoner stated from the wit-ness-box that his age was nineteen and that he had known the girl for abont a year. Tbe latter urged him to take her as his wife, and he would have done"so*but for the objection of her people. He honestly believed that the girl was sixteen. He admitted relations with the girl prior to the date of the alleged abduction but denied having induced her to leave her home. While riding on a Sunday evening with a companion he saw the girl sitting on the roadside near her guardian’s place. The girl said he wonld have to “take her gto his home. Her horse was k in a a guily close by, and she rode away, with him, telling his father on arrival at his home' thati she had come to be prisoner’s wife. His, Honour (to prisoner): You say that the girl was greatly in love with you, not yon with her? Prisoner; Yes. Paora Hiki corroborated the evidence of his eon (the prisoner) concerning the girl persisting in wishing to remain as the latter's wife, despite their protestations According to Maori custom girls were sometimes taken as wives at the age , of ten, often they were betrothed soon after birtb. Mr Prendergast: Is there any marriage ceremony? Witness :‘bometimes a committee is formed to give in marriage. My wife and I took each other without ceremony. ’ . _ In charging the jury his Honour said the suggestion of Maori custom must he dismissed. Native law was only recognised in oonneotiou with land, Tbe main questions to be decided were/,whether the prisoner knew the girl to be sixteen years of age, and whether he took her away or she took him. Aocused wSs found guilty and sentenced to two years hard labour.