Hanging of Tongans recalls celebrated 1953 case

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 18

Hanging of Tongans recalls celebrated 1953 case

From

ARTHUR KIDSON,

in Wellington

The recent hanging of the three Tongan Islanders for murder recalls a similar case in the mid-1950s when three Niuean natives' whose island home was then, and still is, a part of New Zealand, were sentenced to be hanged for murder. That case, a cause celebre, raised such a furor here that, the sentence was not executed. After eight months of legal wrangling, which extended as far as the Privy Council, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

That drama began at midnight on Saturday, August 15, 1953, when the three Niueans, wielding heavy knives, killed the Resident Commissioner, Mr Larsen, as he lay in bed. His wife heard the rumpus and tried to intervene; but she, too, was attacked and rendered unconscious. The three murderers, Latoatama, aged 20, Folitolu, 26, and Tamaeli, 22, were brought to trial on September 7, in Niue’s High Court of Alofi, the island’s main settlement. The trial was conducted by a New Zealand judge (Mr L. G. H. Sinclair) and six assessors, four of

them Niueans. After two days of deliberation each of the three accused was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Their sentences aroused such public controversy in New Zealand that the Minister of Justice and AttorneyGeneral, the late Sir Clifton Webb, a wise, learned, and deeply considerate man, with a broad humanitarian outlook, found himself in the hot seat.

As the Minister of Island Territories he was responsible for events in Niue; and as Minister of Justice and At-torney-General he had three years previously reinstated capital punishment in this country. The Crimes Amendment Act of 1941 formally abolished the death sentence for murder and substituted life imprisonment, a policy established by the first Labour Government soon after its election in 1935; In the interim all death sentences had been commuted.

By 1949; when the Labour Government was busted and Sidney, George Holland became Prime Minister, ‘ a

groundswell had developed in New. Zealand for the restoration of capital punishment. Justices of the Peace called for it, as did women’s organisations, up and down the country. Sheila M. Belshaw, daughter of' the late Sir Clifton Webb, writes in her biography of her father, “Man Of Integrity”: “The climax was reached with a particularly brutal murder, ‘the Mt Victoria murder’ as it became known. An English woman out for a Sunday walk in September, 1948, was raped and murdered by a Borstal parolee out on licence.

“Public feeling ran so high that a spontaneous debate on capital punishment was sparked off in Parliament while members were debating an Imprest Supply Bill.” Emotions ran high, as they always do in such instances. Some people would have torn the murderer to pieces, and felt that nothing but the fear of the gallows would deter

some men — or women — from taking human life. A Royal Commission was set up, following which the death sentence for murder was reintroduced. The three Niue Islanders were received at Mt Eden prison on October 10. Shelia M. Belshaw records: “On December 8, the Gover-nor-General intimated that he did not intend to interfere with the sentence passed on the Niue Islanders. Instructions were issued by my father to the authorities in Niue, to prepare for the triple execution. “The three men left Auckland by plane for Tonga under police guard. From there they were transported back to Niue by the Tofua, the gallows and the' executioners, of necessity, travelling from New Zealand in the Tofua along with the condemned men.” But their fate turned out differently. Sheila Belshaw records: “On hearing the announcement that the Gover-

nor-General did not intend to interfere with the sentence passed by the Court, the Auckland branch of the Howard League for Penal Re-

form instructed counsel to apply to the Privy Council in England for leave to appeal. The Government then advised the Governor-General to grant a respite (or suspension) of execution ot the death sentence, pending the Privy Council’s decision, and my father, on the very eve of the execution, sent instructions to the island to stay the execution.

“It was not possible to keep the men on Niue, as there was no prison - there, so they were sent to Apia in Western Samoa to await their fate.’.’ The sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and the three men returned to Mt Eden on May 27, 1954. Later they were transferred to different prisons around New Zealand. Mt Eden officials have no further record of them. The last New Zealand hanging was in 1957. Capital punishment was ultimately abolished here by the second Holyoake ministry in 1961.