ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE BY A MAORI.

Waikato Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1735, 18 August 1883, Page 2

ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE BY A MAORI.

Tin: villainous practice of highway robbery now becoming extinct in English speaking communities is, it would seem, extending itself to the hitherto pcaooful haunts ot the Maoii. A few days ago a Maori woman named Wivi Pene came to Cambridge and received a payment of some twenty odd pounds on account of some interest held by her in a ceita n block of l.uid. Having made a tew purchases in the way of necissaries she returned lo hei li'tnixtjii at Tapapa with £20 of the money hhe had received at Cambridge. Heie a former husband of the gooil lady's sought to renew his attachment. Having played the pait of wife deserter, and paramour to another dame for some months previous he, hearing of the unexpected foitune of his desoited spouse, considered her good b.iit, until the money was successfully disposed of. at any rate. Hoani Wikircwhi (for such is the' gentleman's name) follows 1 close in the wake of his irreconcilable spouse, who held hard to her cabh, and repelled all overtures for peace on the part of her unfaithful lord. Being cominced in his own mind that moral suasion was less efFectual than physical force he determined to resort to the latter as the suiest means of effecting his purpose. Accordingly, on Sunday evening last, as the setting sun, bent on its quota of retirement, hid its head behind a neighbouring hill, Hoani set forth on a somewhat tragic highw ay expedition. Secluding himself in a convenient situation he awaited the arrival of Pene, who. he had an idea, carried her "stocking" about with her. Pene soon arrived, and was greeted with the time-honoured expression, of which "your money or your life" may be accepted as the English interpretation. Not; being favourably disposed to a compliance with the choice so graciously extended her by Hoani she showed fight, but Hoani being the stronger forcibly deprived her of her capital, and is then said to have playfully rolled her over a neighbouring cliff, to the sad derangement of Pone's constitutional fragments. The unfortunate victim having sufficiently recovered from her indisposition found her way to Cambridge, where she inters ied the local constable, and laid her troubles before that popular functionary. A warrant will be issued tor the robber's arrest, and the case (if the individual in question turns up) heard at the next sitting of theR.M. Court at Cambridge, when, no doubt, the particulars of this latest development of duvalism will afford not a little entertainment to a well filled court-house.