ALLEGED ILL-TREATMENT OF A MAORI PRISONER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2441, 14 January 1881, Page 2

ALLEGED ILL-TREATMENT OF A MAORI PRISONER.

The' following is the statutory declaratiori made by Frederick Simeon with reference to the alleged ill-treatment of a Maori prisoner : I, Frederick Simeon of the city of Wellington, tailor, do solemnly and sincerely declare—l. That John Huff, aboriginal Native of New Zealand, declared to me in my shop, and in the presence of a Wellington Native, that Mr Watt, of Dunedin, sentenced him to seven days’ solitary confinement, and he was kept three weeks for refusing to work. 2. That he was only a quarter of an hour a day in the fresh air, 3. That he was ordered to work but refused, as his sentence had expired. 4. that after he had been three weeks in the cell, he was brought before Mr Brown, and asked why he refused to obey the orders of the Governor of the Gaol. He replied : “ My hard-labor sentence has expired ; I am doing my time for my bail.” 5. That he was marched back to his cell, and confined four weeks, making seven weeks in all. 6. That his eyesight was affected by the confinement, and when he used to be taken out for fresh air his whole body shook as if he had been drinking heavily. 7. That he was sentenced in Taranaki to two months hard labor and 12 months’ bail. 8. That he was kept nearly three months longer : in gaol than the he was sentenced. And I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of an Act of the General Assembly of New Zealand, intituled “ The Justice of the Peace Act, 18GG." F, SIMEOX.

Declared at the city of Wellington, this 7th day of January, 1881, before me, E. W. Mills, J.P.