Judge questions use of marae

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 1

Judge questions use of marae

The activities of a girl, aged 16, and other members of the Black Power gang at the National Marae in Pages Road before going to a hotel where a fight, and a death,. occurred were questioned by Mr Justice Holland in the High Court yesterday.

His Honour was addressing a jury that had just returned a verdict of not guilty on a charge against a Black Power member of being an accessory after murder. Wally Awatere, aged 28, a scrubcutter, was found not guilty of being an accessory after the murder of Edward Ivan Nelson, aged 34, by enabling Andrew Peter McGlynn, aged 18, to leave the scene and avoid arrest.

The previous day McGlynn changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on a charge of the murder of Mr Nelson and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Awatere, who was jointly charged with the same murder, was discharged under section 347 of the Crimes Act. “It has no doubt been a matter of considerable concern to you, as it is to me and a large number of the community in Christchurch, that this is the second trial here within six months where members of Black Power took their women to a public

bar of a hotel with the intention of having a fight,” Mr Justic Holland said.

It was not known if a murder was planned originally. The plan was that the gang went off armed with the purpose of these women having a fight.

“That alone is bad enough. But what particularly troubles me is that it seems quite clear from the evidence that this journey was planned at a place called the National Marae,” said his Honour. At the marae the girl, aged 16, had been drinking whisky and beer. It might be that she had not done all those things together or all at the marae.

“But I am concerned that a girl of that age could have been drinking at a marae, which I understood was founded for some distinct purpose other than what it was used for in this case,” his Honour said.

The police had some knowledge of the matter and he urged senior officers to confer with Maori elders to ensure that something was done to prevent 16-year-old girls drinking liquor at the marae.

“I would hope further that something was done to prevent events like this being organised at the marae,” his Honour said.