NAPIER.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3562, 27 May 1880, Page 2

NAPIER.

A Boasted Maori.

This day.

A curious case of one Maori roasting another came before the Court to-day. Herika, a follower of Te Whiti, and a sort of minor prophet and missionary combined, was charged with assaulting one Heriona, an old, blind, and weakminded man. The evidence showed that the old man was ill, and the prisoner, who was consulted as a kind of medical man, declared that the invalid was possessed of the devil. To cure him he had a Maori copper made and heated, and lined with green leaves in the most approved iashion, and then laid poor Heriona in the copper. The old gentleman t.ied to wriggle away, and then Herika tied his hands and feet, and as this was not satisfactory he sat on tho poor man to keep him well down on the stones. The old fellow naturally cried out, but Herika was equal to the emergency, and declared that it was the devil

crying to get out of his body. At last the bystanders interfered and rescued Heriona. but not before he had been dreadfully burned. In fact an unmentionable part of his body was described as thoroughly cooked. The case was remanded to allow the old man to be ex« amincd by a medical man. Xx.teresting Sporting Case. At the District Court in the case Ellis against Laurcnson, claim £65, judgment was given for defendant. It is an interesting case to sporting men. Laurenson draw Grand Duchess in a Derby sweep on tlie Tradesmen's Cap lest j Hawke's Bay races. Ellis agreed to buy ! Laurcnson's ticket for £25. The agreement was drawn out and signed by both parties and stamped, and the ticket also endorsed to the same effect. Grand Duchess proving to be only starter, entitled the holder of the ticket to £100. Laurenson theu instructed the holder of the sweep money not to pay Ellis, and Laurenson received it himself—hence the action. The. judgment caused considerable surprise.