Maori Girls Taken to Midnight Keg Party

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 849, 18 December 1929, Page 1

Maori Girls Taken to Midnight Keg Party

BROTHERS INTERVENE BEER DRUNK AT KAINGA . From Our Own Cort'espondcnt TE KUITI, Today. Arising out of a keg party at the rear of a boarding house at Te Kuiti on December 7, at which two Maori maids were the guests of two pakeha youths, several charges of breaches of the Licensing Act were heard at the To Kuiti Police Court yesterday. William Pitcon, painter, and John Blake, labourer, pleaded not guilty to supplying liquor to a female native, and Arthur Butler, painter, pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting in the offence. In connection with other charges arising out of the same circumstances, Sugar Wi, a native, pleaded guilty to introducing liquor into a native kainga, and Peter Turner with aiding and abetting. Puku Wi was charged with a breach of his prohibition order. According to the police, one of the young men got a five-gallon keg of beer from Ohaupo, and put it in a shed behind Candara House. He had two keys to the shed, one of which he gave to a friend, telling the latter he could have a drink when he liked. Meeting two Maori girls after the pictures, the two young men took them to where the keg of beer was stored. The girls’ brothers were informed of the party, and came and threatened the young men because they had given the girls drink. One of the brothers then commandeered the keg, and took it up to the Maori pa, where the beer was consumed by the natives. Evidence was given by the younger Maori girl of having met the two men, and being invited to the party at the back of Candara House. There they were given beer to drink. The Sergeant: How long were you there? Witness: Till about one o’clock. The Sergeant: Then your brother came and dragged you away?—Yes. Witness said she remembered everything that happened at the party. Corroborative evidence was given by the other Maori woman, 21 years of age, who said she • was not in the habit of going to keg parties. The magistrate, Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., said there were some disgraceful features about the case. A keg of liquor had been procured, and two young Maori girls had been given drink by two men. The liquor was then taken to the pa, where some of it had been consumed.

Pitcon and Blake were each fined £lO and costs, Butler £5 and costs, and the others, for aiding and abetting, £2 and costs. Sugar Wi, for introducing, was fined £2 and costs, and Puku Wi £2 and costs for a breach of his prohibition order.