VERY LATEST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3676, 1 December 1890, Page 2

VERY LATEST.

(Prom Our Own Correspondent,) Death of a Maori Ohio?, Qupjow Noiith, Monday, _ Old Ngatuero Taiwhirimatea, who lived at tlio Waiohiue Bridge Maori pah, died on Saturday evening, and tho natives aro assembling from all parte in preparation for the tangi, which will' evidently be a very large and ceremonious one. Ngatuere was one of tho principal chiefs of his Hapu, aud in his timo had been a noted warrior, His reputed age was one hundred and seventeen years, This is by Maori estimation, and they got at it by the fact that Ngatuero used to speak of having seen Captain Cook, the fumous explorer, when he visited New Zealand. It was during a Supvomo Court case some time back that Ngatiiere's recollections of Captain Cook were publicly disclosed, He told the judge that he was alive when Captain Cook visited the Colony. As that intrepid traveller died in seventeen hundred and seventy ninetheevidenco of Ngatiiere's great. age would bo conclusive if his statement m this direction . is- reliably reported. Apart from tin's circumstantial allegation, one would, bo nioro inclined, to accredit the old gentleman with being between ninety and a hundred years of existence, and to put down his Captain Cook reminiscences to traditional knowledge rather than personal experience. The deceased was born in the Wairarapa, He then went tq Hawko's Bay, and for a while knocked about generally, and in the then turbulent times no doubt did not shirk his share of fighting, The funeral is expected to take place on Wednesday in the afternoon, and the- body will be buried near the Waiohine pah, All Wairarapa natives will attend the Tangi, and visitor* are oxpecteel from Hawke's Bay districts, }t is anticipated that .there will soon he between four and five hundred Maoris encamped at the Black Bridge.

Supreme CourtCriminal Sessions, Wellington, Monday, The Criminal sessions of the Supreme Court were opened this morning before. Chief Justice Prendergast. in his address to the Grand Jury bo referred at considerable length to the Hutt murder case and pointed out that' if the evidence before thorn warranted it they could have the indictment altered from murder to manslaughter, As to the question of provocation he did not think the fact of the youths having assailed the Chinamen's huts with stones was sufficient to warrant the jury reducing the charge to ono of manslaughter. The evidence showed almost conclusively it was. Sam Koy who had the deceased by the legs and who delivered the blow which proved fatal, biit that it would not iffeot the charge against the other two men, if the jury were satisfied they were really taking part.iu what turned out to be a fatal assault. The other charges on the calendar arepf aprtoryiifttijt'e,