ONE COUNSEL FOR BOTH

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1940, Page 8

ONE COUNSEL FOR BOTH

By Telegraph—Press Association.

CROWN AND ITS PRISONER UNUSUAL COURT HEARING

Wellington, Last Night. The Full Court hearing of the appeal of Tearaia Masters, a native of Avatiu, in the Cook Group, from a sentence of 15 years' imprisonment imposed for the manslaughter of his wife produced the unusual spectacle of the Solicitor-General, Mr. H. H. Cornish, who appeared for the Crown, advancing arguments on behalf of the prisoner for a reduction of the sentence. The court reserved its decision. Masters, aged 41, was married in 1939 to Tarai, aged 23, at Rarotonga. Tarai was the mother of a child about six years who lived with the pjrisoner and Tarai at Avatiu. Poisoning Contracted. Masters was formerly employed on a trading Schooner but from Deceinber, 1938, was unwell from the results of carbon monoxide poisoning contracted in the engine-room of the schooner. He entered hospital at Rarotonga for treatment early in June, 1939, and was discharged on July 13. On Sunday, July 16, he was at home with his wife when other members of the family Jeft to go to church. When they returned Ihey found him acting strangely and no trace of Tarai. Later her .dead body was found under a bed on which Masters was sitting. Subsequently he made a statement to the police that argument had arisen over the church to which the child of Tarai was to go and he had seized the wife by the throat and accidentally throttled

her. Medical evidence established at the trial before Chief Judge Ayson at Rarotonga showed that prisoner was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning which produced melancholia and nervous debility. Masters was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment to be served in New Zealand, the Chief Judge, however, remarking that if Masters proved satisfactory and the circurst&nces were favourable, he might after five years be sent back to the Cook Islands to serve the balance of the sentence. Not Represented by Counsel. From that sentence the prisoner appealed to the Full Court of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, which is the appellant tribunal for appeals from the Cook Islands. Masters was not represented by counsel so the Solicitor-Gene-ral made submissions on his behalf as well as submissions for the Crown. For the prisoner he submitted that the sentence was excessive as the evidence established that Masters was in a very indefinite state of health when the of-. fence was committed. The effect of carbon monoxide poisoning was to create ;mall haemorrhages in the brain, _ putting portions of the brain out of action. Dr. Grav, of the Mental Hospitals Departtnent, had examined the prisoner since bis arrival in New Zealand and had given a report that, although he was not insane, there was definite mental deterloration. On the morning of the1 tragedy rarai had been provoking her husband and it seemed from the evidence that he had temporarily lost control of himself. On the other hand he pointed out as :ounsel . for the Crown that • the Chief Judge was a man of great experience with natives and that he had given every consideration to the matter. His summing up at the trial was a model of fairness. Moreover imprisonment in the Cook Islands was more technical than actual, as prisoners there were allowed i considerable amount of liberty.