THE WOMAN IN THE CASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 27, 23 April 1927, Page 17 (Supplement)

THE WOMAN IN THE CASE

a higher court, guided by evidence, rather than by local knowledge, and, in the .case of Graham, rather a surplus of sympathy. He believed them Innocent; his faith in Smith was of the slightest, and he disliked the face of the woman. Therefore, and judicially he was hopelessly at sea, he dismissed the case with the comfortable thought that no superior legal views would be brought to bear on his action. The next case was a series of charges against the trader, partly proved by the evidence of the chief end his son. These presented no difficulty and Mr. Smith left the cd%rt poorer by some twenty pounds, muttering that British law was a funny thing since a pair of blank niggers could half-murder a poor woman and get a pat on the back for it, while he, a struggling white man, got stung. Three months later, during the next patrol of Matanuki, the trader was again in trouble, and Graham was forced not only to fine him heavily but to tell him that he was about to apply for the cancellation of his trad ing licences. “Try it!” said the trader, with the f esperation of coming ruin. “What shout the case of that woman. You ain’t the king y'er know! You can’t let blank niggers off in the teeth of witnesses because you like them, and I'm going to look into it.” Secretly admitting the justice of the taunt, Graham yet “tried it,” and with success. The trader was ready to leave the island in the Government yacht when a few weeks later she brought the administrator on his yearly inspection of Matanuki. Smith had a long conference with Graham’s chief and at its close the former was sent for, being asked very seriously for information regarding his handling of a case of attempted murder in which a woman was seriously wounded. Graham admitted at once that the evidence against the two men had been strong, but claiming local knowledge, he submitted that his action had been fair if not legally sound. "Of course,” said the Administrator gently, “the great thing in these cases is not to be found out—especially when you’re right. I’m afraid Mr. I' mith will force me to look into it. Sorry, Graham.” "I’m certain, sir,” said Graham, “that Smith got the woman to bring the charge against these two men who were actually witnesses against him in another case.” “Dear me! D’you think he shot her himself” said the Administrator; "she must be a loyal soul!” Graham foresaw trouble, serious trouble. If the Administrator's investigations forced him to take action the would have to be reviewed by the Governor-General. The chief and his son might escape; Graham would not. It was therefore with feelings of righteous discomfort that once more he collected the witnesses and the two accused. The proceedings on the yacht were much more formal than in the usual District Court, and this perhaps excused Nati’s display of quaking embarrassment which approached the swooning stage when the Administrator came on deck. The trader was viciously happy, giving his evidence in a melo-drama-tically righteous tone, and ending -with the gratuitous remark; “The black blackguards who shot that poor woman should be hung by the neck!” “And I agree with you,” said the Administrator courteously, as he gazed very closely through the thick lenses in his pince-nez at the trembling Nati who was now about to drop. “But rather a bad shot, don’t you think, Mr. Smith,” he added lightly—“only two pellets hitting her!” “Damn bad!” said Smith, who had decided that the Administrator was a “proper gent,” who could appreciate a manly tone. “Almost I think,” continued the Administrator, "we might make everybody shoot at a target and by a process of reduction find the guilty party.” Graham and Smith laughed duly and respectfully. “The only difficulty about this,” he went on, “and it's excessively generous of me to make the suggestion, is that I should be found guilty and become the ‘black blackguard’ who is hanged.” Graham and Smith laughed duly end respectfully. "I think. Mr. Smith, you’re very bard —I mean your sentence!” The Administrator looked over the top of his glasses. "And I’m bound to tell you that I shall appeal—because when I shot that woman up a gnali nut tree some years ago when I was District Commissioner here, I thought she was h pigeon.”