BLOWS STRUCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 12

BLOWS STRUCK.

MAORI WOMEN FIGHT.

KAIKOHE STREET SCENE

MAGISTRATE'S CASTIGATION

(By Telegraph. —rOwn Correspondent.) KAIKOHE, Friday.

"A person who retaliates to words with'blows cannot get sympathy from the Court, and if bad language was used it should have been dealt with here; such an affair is a disgrace to the town and also to your race » said Mr. G. N. Morns, S.M., in the Kaikohe Police Court yesterday, when addressing women who appeared before him fio-htin" in the Kaikohe mam stieet on laturday evening. The defendants were Maria Joyce and Pera Wihongi. Constable D. Robertson said on Saturday his attention was attracted by a crowd of Maoris, and upon investigating he found the two defendants had been fighting. Joyce was bleeding, from & wound in the hand, which she asserted had been done with a hatpin used by Wihongi. Wihongi had a wound in the arm, apparently inflicted by a pair of scissors used by Joyce, who said she had them in her possession at the time, one said local gossip had caused the trouble, but. did not know who started the affair. One blamed the other. _ , Maria Joyce said she had driven down the street in a car, and got out if it to go into a shop. When she stepped out of the car Wihongi accused her of calling her •fwihongi's) mother a certain name, and attacked her. Wihongi, in evidence, said she assaulted Joyce on account of the accusation against her mother. She. struck Joyce and knocked her down, and during the struggle saw a shiny object like a knife., She felt stabs, but when she heard the constable coming she let go.

Wihongi was fined £2 and 12/ costs, and Joyce £1 and 12/ costs. Interpreter's fee (10/) was allowed.