DROWNING OF A NATIVE CHIEF, AND RECOVERY OF THE BODY.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 845, 15 November 1877, Page 3

DROWNING OF A NATIVE CHIEF, AND RECOVERY OF THE BODY.

Thb body of the unfortunate native drowned above Cambridge, m the Waikato River, ou the 2ud infant, was' found \ on Tueßday. As oar rea- era are awaVe, the acoi lent occucred through tht) upset., ting of a canoe, m which were two' other nutives bennea deceased. The party of three started in a Buiall oauoe on the' evening of th> 2ud mutant ' having with them a lar«e eel.t>»*k>.t, and when coming', towards jQambiiiign ihe canoe suddenly ' Cttpsztd^ua .though the other t *o ssved tbtm»ete4s, Hukuuui, who was a Ngatihaua chief, lemdmg at Mauogatautari, of some consideration, was drowned. The natives were mouh oonceru< d for ths lobb of the body « the river waa watched day and night, and they even wenc to the, trouble of making a large roeshed net, which they placed across the river, above ' Cambridge, with the object of arresting the body when it floattd. Ic did, however, pasa th'in, notwithrtandiDg their care, for on Tuesday .Sergeant McGoveru at Haouilton received a telegram from Mr Asher, at Cambridge, stating that the upBteamer had passed the body of a drowned Maori. . . Mounted Constable Wild at once proceeded up the river in a oanoe, and whun two or three miles above the island, found the body waehed amoug some scrub upon the bank, and cleverly securing ity paddled back to Hamilton. By the time he had arrived there, a party of nativeH— two men and a woman— oame down in a large oanoe, aad requested to be allowed to take away the dead body. This Sergeant MoGtavern deolined to permit until the matter had b en reported to the. Coroner, WNS aianoke, Esq- On Mr Searanjfce heariog from the natives them' i Heives how the deceased actually came by hifl death, he considered it .whs quite unnecessary to hold an inquest, and directed lh» body to bo haodd over to them. Tney at once made arrangements with the steamer to have it conveyed to Cambridge. The natives seamed quite delighted with the police for the tact they displayed in picking up and neoaring tho body, which they themselves had been seeking for *ver sine* tho 2ud mat.