DUAL ROLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 301, 27 September 1940, Page 2

DUAL ROLE

CROWN COUNSEL IN COURT. PRESENTS CASE FOR PRISONER. (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, September 26. The Full court hearing of the appeal of Tearaia Masters, a native of Avatiu, in tlie Cook Islands group, from a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment imposed for manslaughter of his -wife, produced the unusual spectacle of the So-licitor-General, who appeared for the Crown, advancing argument on behalf of the prisoner for a reduction of sentence.

The prisoner, aged 41, was married in April, 1939, to Tarai, aged 23, at Rarotonga. Tarai was the mother of a •child of about six years, who lived with the prisoner and Tarai at Avatiu. The prisoner, who was* formerly employed on a trading schooner, from Deceifiber, 1938, had been unwell from the results of carbon monoxide poisoning contracted in the engine-room of the schooner. He entered hospital in Rarotonga for treatment early in June, 1939, and was discharged on July 1.3. On Sunday, July 16, he was at home with his wife when the other members of the family left to go to church. When, they returned home they found the prisoner acting strangely, but there was no trace of Tarai. Later her dead body was found under the bed on which the prisoner was sitting. . Subsequently the prisoner made a statement to the police- that an argument had arisen over the church to which the child of Tarai was to go, and he had seized his wife by the throat and accidentally throttled her.

Medical evidence established at the trial, before Chief Judge Ayson, at Rarotonga, was that prisoner was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, which produced melancholia and nervous debility. The prisoner was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter, and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment to be served in New Zealand, the Chief Judge remarking that if the prisoner proved satisfactory and circumstances were favourable, the prisoner might, after five years, be sent back to the Cook Islands to serve the balance of the sentence.

From that sentence the prisoner appealed to the Full Court of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, which is the appellant tribunal for appeals from the Cook Islands. The prisoner was not represented by counsel so the So-licitor-General made submissions on his behalf as well as submissions for the Crown. For the prisoner he submitted that the sentence was excessive, as evidence established that the prisoner was in a very indefinite state of health when the offence was committed. The effect of carbon monoxide poisoning was to create small haemorrhages in the brain,- putting portions of the brain out of action. Dr. Gray, of the Men--tal Hospitals Department, had examined the prisoner since his arrival in New Zealand and had given a report that although the prisoner was not insane, there was definite mental deterioration. On the morning of the tragedy Tarai had been provoking her husband and it seemed from the evidence that he had temporarily lost control of himself. On the other hand the SolicitorGeneral pointed out, as counsel for the Crown, that the Chief Judge was a man of great experience with natives and that he had given every consideration to the matter. His summing-up at the trial was a model'of fairness. Moreover, imprisonment in the Cook Islands was more technical than, actual, as prisoners there were allowed a considerable amount of liberty. The Court reserved its decision.