SHOOTING A MAORI GIRL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 684, 4 February 1881, Page 2

SHOOTING A MAORI GIRL.

(From the N.Z. Herald.)

On the Bth .instant a shooting, affair took place near Kaeo, at the house of a settler named Robert Waithall.. The place is about nine miles from Whangarei. It appears that'a Maori boy named Te Kahu Paira Mateiihi and a Maori girl named Matetuhiwai were in the: house together in the evening. The boy, who is a'jout ten years of age, told the girl to wash up the dishes else he would shoot at' her. He got the gun, which appears to have been loaded, and ordered the girl to put a blanket around her, and he would shoot her* She did so, and laid down the sofa. He placed the gun pn the table, raised the hammer, and fired. The charge of shot struck the girl on the left arm, near the shoulder, cutting the flesh 'away from the bone on the top side of the arm. The bone is not fractured, but the injuries aro rather severe. The Maoris are doctoring the girl in their own way, and it is oxpocted that Bhe will recover. The boy and girl belong to different tribes living in t!ie Kaeo at the time the shooting took place. Constable O'Reilly, of Whangaro, visited the place on the offence becoming known, but on account

of the extreme youth of the offender did notarrest tha boy; It is oxpected that the girl will be sufficiently recovered by the 31st hist., to be examined by the Resident Magistrate, who is expected to visit the district about that time. No cause is assigned for the commission of the offence.