DEMAND BY MAORIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 340, 28 April 1928, Page 13

DEMAND BY MAORIS

RATANA COURT CUSTOM WARNING BY MAGISTRATE (From Our Own Corrcspojulent) RAETIHI, Friday. An unusual case was heard in the Raetihi Magistrate’s Court yesterday when Puke Takau and Maori Wharehoka were charged with sending a document likely to mislead a person ignorant of the law that it came from a Court of justice. In a letter certain allegations were made against a Maori married woman, and she was requested to send £5 in payment. She refused to send the amount and received further demands. Eventually she received a document in the form of a summons, asking- for £lO. Defendants admitted sending the letters and pleaded not guilty. The woman concerned said she thought the document was to do with Ratana’s Court. She knew it was not a document from a Court of justice. Maori Wharehoka said he sent the letter because he was chairman of Ratana’s committee. When the woman got the letter she should have gone to Jerusalem and appeared before the council. Her case was judged, but she was not there. The judgment was sent on to her. The woman had herself to blame, for she belonged to the Ratana movement and should have obeyed the rules. The magistrate said he would dismiss the information. He wished the parties concerned to clearly understand that in this country there was only the law of New Zealand. The law of Ratana was not the law of this country. ______