ALLEGED ABDUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 30 July 1910, Page 8

ALLEGED ABDUCTION.

A WAIKATO CASE. By Telegraph,—Press Association. Auckland, July '4B. A serious charge—that of forcibly abducting a native girl 14 years of age, named Tane Whiunui, at Mataihura—was preferred against a young man named Percy Wright St. Clair, of Ngaruawahia, at the Hufitly Police Court. The evidence or the father, Whinuni, and of tih-e mother, went to show that the girl was 14 yeajs of age, the date of birth appearing in the Bible produced. It wa.s alleged that the accused, who worked in a HaxmiU near wieir wliare, ;.estered the girl with unwelcome attentions. He came about the house until requested to leave, his proposals being rejected. Despite the warnings and expostulations of the parents, he still persisted in accosting the girl, and, for one or two days, camped in the bush near Whiuni's wliare. On the night of March 28, during the absence of both parents, he forcibly abducted the girl. She corroborated her parents' evidence, and stated that, from Matohura, she and the accused walked to Ohinewai station, where they proceeded by rail to Palmerston North, where they lived for two or three weeks. The accused worked in a flaxraill there. At the end of that period accused deserted her, leaving her to shift for herself. With the aid of 6ome local natives, she got into communication with her parents, who brought her home. I Accused pleaded not guilty, and was committed to appear before the Supreme Court at Hamilton.