UREWERA TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 305, 26 December 1928, Page 10

UREWERA TRAGEDY.

YOUNG WIFE FOUND SHOT.

BODY LYING IN SCRUB

SUIpTDE WHILE DEPRESSED

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

ROTORUA, Monday

An Inquest into the death of Mary Hatata, who - was found shot on Saturday morning at Otekura, was held in the mission house at Ruatahuna on Saturday by Mr. R. Nesbit, J.P., and a jury of four.

Dr. Herciis, who is residing temporarily at Te Whaiti, said that in his examination of the body, he found a gun shot wound in the left chest sufficient to have caused instantaneous death. The wound could have been self-inflicted.

A native named Matu said Mary Batata was his foster-child. She was 17 years of age and was married, but was not living with her husband. He saw her alive on Saturday morning .last when he left to attend his brother's sheep.

Hugh MacPherson, constable at Tc Whaiti, identified >the body as that of Mary Hatata. The body was lying on a sack and a blanket over tea-tree. Alongside was a double barrelled gun, with the left barrel discharged. He thought the gun had been discharged by the woman pressing her toe against the trigger. He produced a letter written by her to her husband:—"Dear John.—This is to tell you I am going to a place where we shall not meet. If you hear of anything wrong you will probably think or wonder. From Mary Hatata. You are to go and see Patera."

Annie Henry, a missionary, said that I Patara asked her to go to Otekura, as Mary' and Matu were missing, and a woman had heard a report of a gun. She asked Peata Tahuri if Mary had been angry that morning, and she had replied No, but she had been crying the night before. Witness and others followed Mary's footsteps until they found her body. The gun had been securely tied to a manuka tree, and her toe was against the trigger. Matu knew nothing about the occurrence, as he was attending sheep. ■ The jury brought in the following verdict:— "The deceased, Mary Hatata, committed suicide on December 22, 1928, at Otekura, Ruatorea, by shooting herde W, «d» a ehofc 8"n» while mentally