ASSAULT AT MURUPARA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 362, 24 January 1941, Page 5

ASSAULT AT MURUPARA

WOMAN STRUCK WITH HAMMER

MAORI CONVICTED

As a sequel to an affray at Muru-

para on the night of December 21, Per a Haliona, a Maori labourer aged '50, appeared in ilie "Rotorua Court on Tuesday charged with assaulting a woman named Auta August. Messrs J. J. Dillon and O. 11. Coleman, Js.P., were on the Bench. The accused, who entered a pie;, of guilty, had been taken to the Rotorua cells alter a complaint by his people at Murupara, and on arrival had been found to be suffering

•om pleurisy. Since lie had been a

atient at the Rotorua hospital. Prosecuting, Sergeant .T. 11. Mc-

Leod, stated that the accused bad gone to his home intoxicated and

had caused trouble endeavouring to quarrel with his father, a man over 80 years. Mrs August had intervened and Hahona had then gone to his own whare. Shortly after he had reappeared with a small hammer and had assaulted the woman, striking her a glancing blow on the nose before bystanders had taken the hammer from him. The fact that Hahona had been a sick man was taken into consideration by the Bench and he was convicted and ordered to appear for sentence if called upon within six months. He was also prohibited from obtaining liquor.