BEATEN BY MAORI WOMAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1069, 5 September 1930, Page 1

BEATEN BY MAORI WOMAN

INCIDENT NATIVE HOSTEL CUSTODIAN EXPLAINS HER ACTION “HE WOULD NOT SPEAK OR GO” "fJE stood at the door and said nothing. Again and again H I asked him: ‘What do you want; what do you want?’ He would not speak and he would not go. At last I got this baton. ...” Speaking to a SUN reporter who sat at her bedside this morning, Mrs. Carmody, the custodian of the Waipapa Maori Hostel, Gittos Street, Parnell, gave her version of the incident on Tuesday evening, when a visitor to the hostel was struck and driven out of the yard.

Last evening The Sun published the story ol an officer o£ the Native Department. who said that he visited the hostel following the receipt of certain complaints made by natives to the Akarana Maori Association. He asked for a bed, he said, hut the woman custodian procured a stockwhip, belaboured him and drove him out of the yard. When a reporter called at the hostel this morning the native custodian, a middle-aged woman named Mrs. Carmody, was in bed. He was admitted by another native woman who assisted the custodian to explain the incident from her point of view. Mrs. Carmody, who appears to he of au exceedingly temperamental nature, was obviously in indifferent health. Her explanations were involved, and the principal outline of the story was given by her companion. They were having tea together quite happily when a knock came at the door. WAS FEELING ILL Though she had risen for the meal, Mrs. Carmody was telling ill. so her companion answered the knock. At the door stood a European (“a white man—as white as juju are”). He said nothing. ‘‘l asked him what he wanted. Seven or eight times I asked him,” said the companion. Finally Mrs. Carmody ca.ns to the door, but the man continued to stand there in silence. A short time after her appointment as custodian of the hostel, following the death of her husband, she had an “unpleasant experience” with a pakeha intruder, so she became frightened. In an attempt to bluff the stranger she cried: “Ask Frank to come here!” Frank was a relative but was not on the premises. The women were alone. Mrs. Carmody then grasped a baton and struck ihe strauger, who retreated out of the yard. Mrs. Carmody displayed the baton used, she said, to drive the man out. It was a stout stick about two feet in length and an inch thick. On the handle was a small loop of leather. “You see, it is not c. ‘stockwhip,’ ” she said. “FIRST TS HELP” “If he had explained what he wanted I would have been the first to help him,” Mrs. Carmody continued.

“Never in my life have I refused a Maori admission, but Europeans are not allowed accommodation here. Before now Europeans have tried to come in, but have been sent away. “This is* a free hostel. Not many come at this time of the year, but at Christmas 1 was turning them away.”

Mrs. Carmody became increasingly excited.

“Others are jealous of me,” she cried. “They would have me kicked out. with their lies. A lie has got a thousand feet—it run 3 quickly and is hard to stop.” Again both women assured the reporter that the man who called on Tuesday evening had not spoken a word. “He did not speak in Maori and he did not speak in English.” After the fray the man called the police. A constable arrived and the man took him round the corner and spoke to him. Later the constable saw her and she told him her story. She also telephoned the sergeant, who assured her that all would be well. Mrs. Carmody says that she has resided at the hostel for six years. Her husband was a member of the police force for 40 years and. after his death, slie was appointed custodian of the hostel.