KIDNAPPED BY MAORIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 16

KIDNAPPED BY MAORIS

MRS. NGOUNGOU TELLS SUN READERS HER STORY EXCLUSIVE FEATURE TOMORROW story has created a greater sensation in New Zealand than that of Mrs. Hera Ngoungou, of Poroporo, near Whakatane, who has been restored to her relatives after living for 55 years among the Maoris, by whom she was kidnapped in 1874. The daughter of a small contractor and farmer in the Lepperton district, Taranaki, Queenie Perrett, as she was known then, disappeared one morning. Half a century later she was restored to her friends and relatives through an accidental meeting in the streets of the little town of Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty. It was proved from scars on her body that she was the missing Queenie Perrett, though she herself had no recollection of her kidnapping and was to all intents and purposes a Maori. Much has been written of her, but most of it has been inaccurate. She has been featured and "dramatised” until she can scarcely recognise her own life in what has been written about her. For the purpose of giving the correct facts to the public, The Sun sent a special reporter to the Bay of Plenty to interview Mrs. Ngoungou and obtain the correct story. As a result, The Sun has obtained the only authentic story in New Zealand. which will appear in the pages of this paper tomorrow. There has been no attempt to colour the narrative. Mrs. Ngoungou tells her own story, baldly, and without any embellishment. The story needs no embellishment. It is remarkable enough in itself, as readers of Saturday’s Sun will find.