MAORI TRAGEDY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 112, 22 February 1937, Page 5

MAORI TRAGEDY

MAN AGED 70 MURDERED. DAUGHTER SEVERELY WOUNDED DEAD MAN’S ISON ARRESTED. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 21. One of the best-known Maoris, in the Patumahoe district, Mr-Toko AVhakaia, aged 70., was murdered, and his elder daughter, Mrs Etc Toko, aged about 30, was severely injured by some assailant at their four-roomed wliare on the AVaiau Pa road about 8 o’clock to night. Friends of the family living about two miles away on the Mauku road were startled an hour later by the sudden arrival on horseback of a son of the dead man, John Toko, aged about 25, who announced • that he had caused a tragedy at home. Jolm Toko was later arrested at the wliare where his father’s body was still lying and was placed in a cell at Pukekohe. The murder was committed in the presence of the aged wife, two daughters, and three grandchildren of Mr AVhakaia and a young companion. Mr AVhakaiai was shot in the chest at point blank range with a single-bar-relled shot-gun, and his daughter, Mrs Ete Toko, was struck on the head with a massive kettle, which was shattered. She was found lying on the floor of the wliare, beside her dead father, feigning death herself to prevent at further attack.

The remaining members of the family, who fled from the wliare after the shooting, took refuge in the neighbouring farmhouse of Mrs E. A. McAlpine, about 200 yards away, told a tragic story. It was stated that there was no warning of the tragedy. The shot was fired across the tiny living-room of the wliare, and Mr AVhakaia fell dead near a window.