THE WAIPAPA TRAGEDY

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 3, 4 January 1923, Page 4

THE WAIPAPA TRAGEDY

JEALOUS HUSBAND'S CRIME,

A MURDEROUS ASSAULT

WIFE NOT EXPECTED TO LIVE

The "New Zealand Times" publishes the following account of the Waipawa tragedy, briefly reported in our telegrams yesterday,

Because he could not bear the thought oi living without his wife, who was about to leave him, Fuhi Maiha, a Maori labourer, living at Mataweka Pa, two miles from Waipawa, first battered his " wife with a hammer, and then shot himself dead. Maiha. who was about 55 years old, had been married ten years to ' his wife, Linda, who was young enough to be his daughter.

A JEALOUS HUSBAND. A few days ago while the pair were working at a shearing shed near Waipawa the husband was told by a married half-caste that he intended to take his (Maiha's) wife' away from him. A friend of Maiha, named Elkington, wa« present. Maiha called his wife, who admitted that she intended leaving him because she loved the other man better. The knowledge preyed on Maiha's mind, and yesterday morning, foe asked Elkington to drive Ihim from Waipawa to his home. This followed conversation with his wife. On the way in Maiha told Elkington that he' could not live without his wife. Elkington was frightened at his friend's attitude, and on reaching Maiha's home hid his shotgun. During the day Maiha, who was an abstemious man usually, went to town and returned with a bottle of whisky, when he drank at intervals during the night. Elkington was still more frightened and sat up all night. About 5 a.m. Maiha asked Elkington to have his wife brought, dn order that foe might make a final appeal to her. Elkington'a wife and Mrs. Maiha arrived later. In the meantime another Maori, a Mormon elder, 'had 'been with Maiha trying to calm his mind. Maiha tried to in* duee Elkington and his wife and another girl to leave* but they were afraid to go. The wife told Elkington that she intended leaving the house to join the other man at Waipukurau, and leave by the two o'clock train.

STRUCK WITH A HAMMER. From outside the house Elkington heard Maiha appealing finally to his wife not to leave him. She went on dressing while he followed her from room to room. Terrified at the possible consequences, Elkington set out to get a neighbour, but was recalled by his wife, who said she heard sounds inside the house. He rushed through the front door and into the bedroom, where he beheld Maiha striking his wife with * hammer. She was not complaining, but reiterated in Maori one word. mean, ing, "O Daddy." the name by which Maiha was affectionately known. Elkington pulled the infuriated husband away out of the house. Maiha not resisting. Then with his wife Elkington returned to the aid of the woman whom he saw lying on her side.

A DETERMINED SUICIDE. Thinking her dead they went outside again and saw Maiha coining from a shed, 40 yards away, with a shotgun. He approached the house hurriedly, pointing the gun at the Elkingtons and the girl. Mrs. Elkington, thinking he was about to shoot, cried: "Puhi, you wouldn't do that." Maiha replied, in Maori, "If you come near mc 111 shoot the three." They then put up their hands, and saw Maiha turn the gun on himself and fire. He fell immediately, but crawled ten or fifteen yards. He rose to Ms feet again, opened the breach of the gun, extracted the dead cartridge, and inserted a live one. Paralysed with fear, the three spectators saw him point the muzzle under his chin, and fire and Wow his 'brains out.

WHAT THE POLICE FOUND. Word of the tragedy reached Constable O'Halloran in fifteen minutes, and with a doctor he went to the pa. In the bedroom he found the wife lying in a pool of blood with two large gashes in the head. One finger was smashed and another wag almost severed by the wedding ring, which had been struck by a hammer. The doctor ascertained that her skull was fractured, and ordered her to the county hospital. Ten yards outside the house Maiha was found lying on his back on the grass with a gun alongside him. Near him, where he first fell, was a pool of blood. Nothing could be done for him, but take his body to the morgue. The wife lies in a precarious condition, and is not expected to recover.

Maiha and his wife were well-known and respected in the small community, and had apparently always been happy. They had one child, which died, and before the end Maiha was heard appealing to his wife in memory of the child to abandon her intention of leaving him. The man with whom MT9. Maiha was going away is a half-caste Maori, already married, and his wife is at present Tying ill in the same hospital to which Mrs. Maiha was taken.