Indian Youth On Trial On Charge Of Murder

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29363, 16 November 1960, Page 19

Indian Youth On Trial On Charge Of Murder

(New Zealand Press Association)

WANGANUI, November 15.

In a telephone conversation on the evening of September 11, the accused had told him that he “had shot a man” and that he had “put two more bullets in o him.” said a prosecution witness in the Supreme Court at Wanganui today when the trial of Balbir Singh, an 18-year-old scrubcutter, charged until the murder of Ras Singh, at Otiwhiti station near Hunterville, began. The case is being heard before the Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowclough) and a jury. The Crown case is being conducted by Mr N. R. Bain, with him Mr F. J. Connell, Mr R. Stacey (Wellington), with him, Mr C. Bayliss (Masterton), appears for the accused. At the end of the' first day’s hearing, 10 prosecution witnesses had given evidence. Clarence Henry Hammond, manager of the Otiwhiti station, said he had received a telephone call front Mrs Barrett, of Te Namu station, Mrs Barrett had told him Balbir was at her home. The witness spoke to the accused over the telephone. “He told me had shot a man,” said Mr Hammond. “I said to him: ‘Good Lord, what has happened?’ He also said he had ‘put two more bullets into him, and that he was lying down.’ ” Hammond said he told the ac-

cused to wait at Mrs Barrett’s home until he arrived. Hammond skid Indian scrubcutters had been employed on Otiwhiti station for the last 18 months. Balbir was one of the original members of the gang. Maharanui Barrett, a married woman, said the accused came to her home twice on September ?1. The first time he expressed concern over the fact that “some Indians on the property were going to kill him.” He said one of the Indians owed his father some money and would not pay it. When the accused returned to her home he said he had fired some shots and might have hit somebody. William Robert Henderson, a

scrubcutter on Te Namu station, said the accused was carrying a rifle, when he met him on the Te Namu property. He told the witness other Indians had told him “that he would not get home alive today.” Cross-examined by Mr Stacey. Henderson said the accused seemed very frightened. Mr Stacey: “You believe! that what he did might have been done to save himself from death?” , Witness: “Yes.” Why?—l know what it is like to be cornered, and he is only a lad.

The hearing will be continued tomorrow.