APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

Southland Times, Issue 24242, 27 September 1940, Page 9

APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

Full Court Reserves Decision

MANSLAUGHTER BY COOK ISLANDS NATIVE

(United Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 26. The full Court hearing of the appeal of Tearaia Masters, a native of Avatiu, in the Cook Islands group, from the sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment imposed for manslaughter of his wife produced the unusual spectacle of the Solicitor-General (Mr H. H. Cornish, K.C.), who appeared for the Crown, advancing an argument on behalf ot the prisoner for the reduction of his sentence.

The prisoner, aged 41, was married in April 1939 to Tarai, aged 23 years, at Rarotonga. Tarai was the mother ot a child of about six years who lived with the prisoner and Tarai at Avatiu. The prisoner was formerly employed on a trading schooner and from December 1938 had been unwell from the results of carbon monoxide poisoning contracted in the engine-room of the schooner. He entered the hospital at Rarotonga for treatment early in June 1939 and was discharged on July 13. On Sunday, July 16, he was at home with his wife when other members of the family left to go to church. When they returned home they found the prisoner acting strangely but there was no trace of Tarai. Later her dead body was found under the bed on which the prisoner was sitting.

Subsequently the prisoner made a statement to the police that an argument had arisen over the church to which the child of Tarai was to go and he had seized his wife by the throat ana accidentally throttled her. Medical evidence established at the trial before the Chief Judge (Mr Justice Ayson) at Rarotonga that the prisoner was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning which produced melancholia and nervous debility. The prisoner was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment to be served in New Zealand, the chief judge, however, remarking that if the prisoner proved satisfactory and the circumstances were favourable, the prisoner might, after five years, be sent back to the Cook Islands to serve the balance of his sentence.

From that sentence the prisoner appealed to the full Court of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, which is the appellant tribunal for appeals from the Cook Islands. The prisoner was not represented by counsel so the SolicitorGeneral made submissions on his behalf as well as submissions for the Crown. INDEFINITE HEALTH For the prisoner he submitted that the sentence was excessive as the evidence established that the prisoner was in a very indefinite state of health when ’the offence was committed. The effect of carbon monoxide poisoning was to create small haemorrhages in the brain, putting portions of the brain out of action. , „ _ Dr Gray, of the Mental Hospitals Department, had examined the prisoner since his arrival in New Zealand and had given a report that although the prisoner was not insane there was definite mental deterioration. On the morning of the tragedy Tarai had been provoking her husband, and it seemed from the evidence that he temporarily lost control of himself. On the other hand, he pointed out, as counsel for the Crown, that the Chief Judge was a man of great experience with natives and that he had given every consideration to the matter. His summing up at the trial was a model of fairness. Moreover, imprisonment in the Cook Islands was more technical than actual, as the prisoners there were allowed a considerable amount of liberty. The Court reserved its decision.