WIFE MURDER RY A CHATHAM ISLANDER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2414, 11 December 1880, Page 2

WIFE MURDER RY A CHATHAM ISLANDER.

[By Tnr,EOHAPii.] CirnisTCHURCTr, Dec. 10. The schooner Omaha, which arrived in port yesterday from the Chatham Islands, brings intelligence of a revolting murder by a native chief. The following arc the particulars ; On November 19th the murderer, Wi Wharapa, or Wi Waripa, a well-to-do native, and one of the chief landholders in the island,, residing at Waitangi, was passing along the beach, when the blacksmith, as he passed his shop, noticed something strange about his manner, and called him into his shop to have some tea. Wi Wharapa went into the forge, and shortly afterwards went out and stood for some hours under a cliff on the beach, with his head bent and in a very dejected attitude. His actions were noticed by the blacksmith’s wife, who fancied there was something wrong, and she got her husband to go up to Wi Wharapa’s house. The blacksmith, on reaching the house saw nothing of Wi Wharapa’s wife, but traces of blood in great quantity, lie returned to his wife, telling her of what he had seen, and then informed Mr Heighten, the Resident Magistrate, of the circumstance. Mr Heighten went to the pah, and got Wi Wharapa’s sister and some others, and went up to the house on a search. On entering the kitchen or sitting room, the walls, ceiling, and floor were found splashed with blood and brains, the floor being much covered with blood. Not seeing the body about the house, Mr Hood and others went in search of it, and found it in a gully, over the hill away from the house. The upper part of the head was smashed to pieces, the features being beyond recogition. The Resident Magistrate at once swore in some special constables, who wont and arrested Wi Wharapa on the beach. He made no resistance, simply telling the constables to stand off. When arrested he refused to say anything. On the case being heard before the Resident Magistrate, the prisoner reserved his defence and was then committed to take his trial for the murder of Ids wife, at the next session of the Supreme Court in Christchurch. Wi .Wharapa’s wife was a native of Lyttelton, and her maiden name was Susan Snoswcll, a niece of Mr Thomas Snoswcll, of lI.M. Customs. She went to the Chathams about three years ago as a domestic servant to one of the squatters’families, and married Wi Wharapa about eighteen months ago. She was about 20 years of age. Wi Wharapa is about 28 years of age, and one of the principal men on the island, and very well off. He was always of a very quiet disposition. Jealousy is supposed to be the cause of the murder. From the traces left in the kitchen where the murder was committed, it seems that Wi Wharapa must have struck his wife several times on the head with a billet of wood, and then taken the lire tongs and beaten her head to pieces. Since his committal it is said that he made a confession of his crime in Maori. He appeared at first in a state of inelancholy, but latterly has become quite calm. Since his confession of the crime he has been silent altogether. The Omaha was ready for sea on the morning that Wi Wharapa was arrested, and those who were there seem to think that he came down to the beach with the intention of getting on board the schooner, and getting away from the island. He is, we hoar, a firm believer in To Whiti. The news of the murder created considerable excitement in Lyttelton,where the murdered girl was well known. Wi Wharapa was heavily ironed during the passage from the Islands here, and on the arrival of the vessel the police were signalled for and took him at once to the gaol. The prisoner was brought up in charge of Constable Rayner and the master and officers of the Omaha. He seems very unconcerned about his position. Concerning the deceased a correspondent furnishes the following particulars About three years ago Susan Snoswcll, a native of Lyttelton, came down to the Chathams, haying been engaged as a servant by a squatter, Mr Charles Kerr, resident at the north of the islaud. About the end of a year from the time she was engaged, a Maori named Wi Warcpa, one of the principal natives of the Chathams, asked her to marry him. She, no doubt led away with the idea of becoming the wife of a man who owned a great deal of land and some 1200 sheep, consented. She was very young, about seventeen, and rather good looking. The idea of a white woman marrying a Maori was looked upon, even in these isolated regions, with disgust; everyone could see that her life would be miserable and wretched in the extreme, and that she would put herself out of the pale of all social intercourse with her own country-women, but the sad and dreadful fate that has been hers should prove a warning to all white women who should contemplate such a mis-alliancc for a moment.