SHIPS MASTER ROBBED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 1

SHIPS MASTER ROBBED

MAORIS CONVICTED OF VIOLENT CRIMES HOUSEBREAKING PROVED A London ship’s master, with whom two Maori youths struck up a drinking acquaintance in a City hotel bar, recounted in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon the story of how the pair knocked him unconscious at the rear of another hotel and relieved him of £2l. The affair resulted in Ttangi Harawana and William Thomas being found guilty by the jury after five minutes’ deliberation of robbery with violence. Tho accused, who were not represented by counsel, were remanded for sentence. Mr. Justice llerdman presided over tho trial. Tho victim of the assault, John Francis Ford Anderson, a master mariner, described how tho two natives approached him with a request for a drink, with which he complied. When he announced that he wanted a taxi, the Maoris offered to secure the vehicle and when it arrived they pushed themselves in with him. The natives guided him to the rear of the hotel, at which ho intended staying. He was then struck heavily over the head and lost consciousness. MONEY MISSING

He was lying on a vacant section when ho regained consciousness in the evening and then found that his money, which ho carried in a spectacle case under his armpit,. was missing. He added that the natives must have seen him taking money from the case while drinking in ihe afternoon. The injuries suffered by Anderson included a fractured cheekbone and a cut face, according to Dr. Haycock, of the Auckland Hospital. Statements to the police made by both accused were produced by Constable McKie, of Whangarei. In his statement Thomas declared that Harawana had struck the pakeha behind the ear and then kicked the prostrate man. Harawana, in his statement, accused Thomas of knocking the pakeha down and searching the man’s clothes. H® (Harawana) had taken £1 from the pakeha’s waistcoat. Harawana questioned the constable, asserting that he had been forced to sign the statement. “You were not,” retorted the constable. “Don’t tell lies,” Harawana said. The constable added that the pair had made the statements voluntarily, after having been warned that the documents might be used against them. Ho added that he had no knowledge of the facts of the case at the time the statements were taken. Harawana briefly addressed the jury, stating that ho would not go back on his statement if he had not been forced to make it. HOUSEBREAKING CHARGE The pair were then jointly tried on a charge of breaking and entering the house of a Chinese, Hop Wing Dee, at Mangere, and stealing £ 3 3s. Tho jury found them guilty and they were remanded for sentence. According to the evidence of the owner of the premises, entrance was effected by forcing a padlock, and the money was stolen from a drawer. At the conclusion of this hearing, Harawana pleaded guilty to robbb - with violence Henry Joseph McKcown of 2s and a pocket knife and pouen. Tho pair were remanded until Friday for sentence.