TERRIBLE NATIVE TRAGEDY.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3445, 9 January 1880, Page 2

TERRIBLE NATIVE TRAGEDY.

A Maori Murders his Wife

and Hangs Himself.

A story reaches us from Kerepehi, a Ifative settlement on the Piako River, illustrating the horrible depravity of the , uncivilis ed Maori. For some time .past a Piako native named Hataraka or Shadrack, has had reason to suspect the fidelity of his wife—a half caste, whose predilec tion of another native named Albert occasioned many unseemly broils in the domestic circle of Mr and Mrs Shadrack. About a month ago, to escape ,from her husband, she swam across the Thames Kiver, and was by her friends supposed to be drowned. This, however, proved not to be the case, as after assiduous searching in the adjacent settlements, the woman's hiding place was discovered,, and she somewhat unwillingly returned to her husband's hapu. Since her escapade the manly breast of Suadrach had been torn with these subtle emotionslove and jealousy, and though a kind of reconciliation was patched up between the ill-assorted pair the jealous Shadrack would not trust her out of his sight. Ultimately a few days ago, by the advice of some friends, who noticed how the matter was preying on his mind, he, accompanied by his wife, proceeded to Wini Kerei's settlement for the purpose of holding a consultation with a great tohunga, medicine man or prophet, who lives under the protection of the loyal Piako chief. To this seer the unhappy Shadrack told the story of his trouble, asking for advice and a remedy for his wife's aversion to him. 'But the great man < could do nothing. He said the fault was ' the man's and not the woman's, so Shadrack paddled down the river in a more unhappy state of mind than before. That night he slept in his own whare, and in tbe morning, having probably crossed the brink of insanity, in the presence of his clansmen, he dashed out his wife's brains with a tent pole, and then terminated his own miserable existence by hanging himself. The ancient tradition of the Maori race precludes any interference between man and wife, and the natives [remained stolid spectators of the dreadful tragedy without raising their hands to arrest the .hand;-of the murderer. Maori law, however, will enable them to make a scape-g :at of the native Albert who may expiate the sin of loving another's wife, by forfeiting his life to the fury of the relatives of the unhappy Hataraka and bis spouse. The particulars of this sad affair have been supplied to us on the best authority, and we have no reason to doubt their accuracy in any particular. Hataraka is well-known in town here as a vendor of pigs, and is described as a short and very dark native with a peculiarly Jewish cast of countetenance. ' .