MURDER CHARGE FAILS

NZ Truth, Issue 1145, 10 November 1927, Page 5

MURDER CHARGE FAILS

Jury Acquits Paul Lendich After Two Days' Trial

STORY OF YOUNG MAORI GIRL

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.)

"We all agreed that he should go to gaol for murdering the child," stated Rosie Te Whiu m the Auckland Supreme Court when giving evidence against Paul Lendich, who stood m the dock charged with the murder of a baby.

AFTER a trial lasting two days— and far into the night of the second day — Lendich was acquitted, Judge Herdman, m his address to the jury, having drawn attention to the paucity of evidence on which to return a verdict of -murder. It was a story of the desolate gumlands of the Far North, where the scrub-covered flats extend for miles to the coast dunes and the sea, and where Lendich, a grey-haired Dalmatian of 39, wrenched a living from the hidden wealth of gum, his "home" a corrugated iron shack exposed to the four winds. • Not far away lived the Maori girl, Rosie, with her own folk, and m the way that such things will happen these two drifted together. ' Their relationship became intimate, until at last the native girl — after several months of secret assignations — took up her abode m the whare of the man some twenty years her senior. At Waipapakauri, near Kaitaia, the moral code may not be as perfectly veneered as m the more respectable regions of New Zealand — man and woman are nearer nature — and these two would appear to have been content to live their own lives. To Lendich the girl was a mate for his lonely Kauri Flat dwelling; to the

Maori girl it was a home where she was the mistress with her own man. Those who picture Rosie a winsome Maori maid would have been sadly disillusioned had they seen her In the witness-box. ' The Northern Maoris are more taciturn and rougher m their exterior when compared with their southern brethren; Rosie was no exception. Her evidence was extracted piecemeal and reluctantly through an interpreter, and often she would, pause for many moments before giving her reply to a question from Crown Prosecutor Paterson or the judge. Briefly, her story was that m August — about two months after her arrival at Lendich's whare — she became a mother. There was no one present except the accused. The baby was a girl, she said. She swore that she gave the infant a drink and that it cried; Lendich had put it on the bed. Then she went outside and from that moment she never saw her baby again. . Early m Rosie's examination she was asked by Crown Prosecutor Paterson to state what happened. For some moment the : witness hung her head and with closed eyes refused^ to answer, until finally she replied: "Murder." tlt This was m 'the evening, and it was dusk when she went outside. When she returned the baby was gone and she alleged that LendiGh. had said that he had taken the infant away. "He said if I were to tell about it he would murder me." If anyone" came to the whare, Lendich told her to say that no child had been born. Rosie did not say how it came about that the next morning her. mother and sister arrived at the whare, but when they were there they aske.d. her where the baby was. The Maori girl replied that there had been no baby, and at that her mother asked Lendich to send for a doctor. He replied that this was not necessary, as Rosie was quite all. right. Her sister • having noticed something;

outside, demanded of the girl that she tell the truth, but she persisted that there had been no child. Following this, Rosie returned home to her mother's, a doctor was sent for, and he questioned and examined her. Lendich came to see her there, and after some days he took her back to his whare. "He said if I didn't go he would kill me." All this while Lendich stoutly maintained that no baby had been born, and when Rosle's mother came to the whare a day or so later he became angry. According- to Rosie he throw her mother to the ground and knocked her about badly; so much so that she had to help her mother home. Cross-examined by Counsel Findlay, who had been instructed by the Crown to represent accused, Rosie admitted that they were all angry. "We all agreed that he should go to gaol for murdering the child." The first person whom Rosie told of the birth of the child was Constable O'Gorman, of Kaitaia. This was on September 13 and after Lendich had beaten her mother. Counsel Fjnlay's cross-examina-tion cast a very different light upon the surrounding circumstances. Rosie did not deny, that she had

told Dr. Rix that there was no baby, j Mihi Boroevich, her sister, and her mother had agreed between then that the police should be first told that there had been a baby. A Mrs. Devich had asked her to get clothes for the baby, which Lendich himself expected to arrive, about October. It transpired that the elders of her tribe • had met to discuss the matter and Lendich had been present. Rosie herself was also there, but she had not spoken. Much medical evidence was given to prove that there might have been a | child born, but it was hard to say. • The trend of Covmsel Finlay's questions to the medical men was that although Rosie might have believed she had a baby, she had been deceived. Lendich gave evidence, which was a denial of the girl's allegations. - He did not, ho-wever, attempt to deny his relationship with her. It was of her own accord, he said, that she returned to him after she had gone home fior a while. ' ' >. The reason., he 'was arrested was for his assault on Bella Te Whiu, but he had never threatened to kill anyone., In his address to the jury, his honor stressed the point that they should not let sentiment stand m the way of their duty. v Referring to Rosie, he said: "She is a girl whose morals are just as meagre as her word is unreliable. ; . . "On her own admission, her word m certain circumstances is not to be believed." His honor did not think that a jury could take the responsibility of imposing 1 a conviction on evidence of this description. A y very brief retirement of the jury resulted m them bringing m a verdict for acquittal, and on hearing this the Crown Prosecutor stated that m view of the evidence the second charge of "concealment of birth would not be proceeded with. ; Lendich, who seemed to feel his .position very keenly, had all the appearance of a man with a great load off his mind when he was. granted his freedom. >