THE MAORI MURDER CASE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 283, 21 July 1888, Page 5

THE MAORI MURDER CASE.

IST U'IKK, J Illy 18. It transpires thai the chief actoi in the brutal tragedy at Waiapu is Wiremu Turci, the son of the Rev. Mohi Turei, the Anglican clergyman at Te flatepe. His wiie was the daughter ot Te Kepa, of Hick's Bay, arid was 23 years of asre. The husband was addicted to drink, and frequently ill-treated his wife. He has formerly thieatened to kill her, and a few weeks ago thiew her on the fire. Theie appears to have been no witnesses to the dieadful tiagedy which terminated the unhappy woman'b e.xibtence. Last Friday aiteinoon, a Maori searching for cattle was attracted by the cry of an infant, which he found lying on the open ground with a little dog licking it^ face to soothe it. This was the year-old child of the unhappy couple. He took it to a .settlement clooe by, and gave it to a woman to take charge ot. He said, " There mutt be something wrong : T heard a shot fired. "William must have fehot Maiy ; he has oiten threatened to shoot her,'' A man named Terurahuihiii went with several others and found the poor woman's body within a quarter of a mile of Makaia. settlement, lying in the open held. A bullet wound in the head showed the cause of death — the woman's head being completely smashed in. The miuderer's tiacks were followed over a ploughed field leading to the mountains. Sergeant Villars, A.C. , has sent word of of the occurrence to the adjoining settlements, and engaged a search paifcy of Maoris to go after the murderer. In connection with the Waiapu murder, it may be observed that such acts of sudden revenge are by no means uncommon among the Ngatiporou tiibe, which inhabits that district on the East Coast, One murder was perpetrated under atrocious eircumstanccb in 1880, tho victim being a Maori woman. Another occurred in 1885, in which a man who had a quan cl about a tether iope, was beaten to death at Waiotnalatini, while a third took place at Whakawhitha in 1885 under somewhat similar circumstances to the present, only that the man was killed instead of the woman, a very influential chief named Hama-mi Mahuika being shot dead by one of his own tribe, whose wife he had taken away and given to another It is, however, satisfactory to know that all these malefactors muttered well-merited punishment, all being condemned to long terms of imprisonment, and that Major Ropata Wahawaha, M.L.C. (at present in Wellington), and the police, as woll represented by Sergeant Villars and Constable Gerraid at Waiapu, are specially well-qualitiecl to deal with such matters.