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Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 22

Blind and stone deaf, an aged Maori whose evidence was required in connection with a dispute between two Maori brothers provided a difficult problem for the Gisborne Magistrate’s Court one afternoon; yet despite the fact that the old man could neither see nor hear questions were put to him and answers received by means of an extraordinary language of the hands, an intensely interesting exhibition to Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M., and others in the Court (says the “Poverty Bay Herald”). The Maori witness, Minerepa Te Rure, over 80 years of age, was led into the Court by his niece, who was to act as interpreter of the unusual language, and a dispute arose when it was learned that she was a sister of the parties. Finally, however, the Magistrate permitted her to act as interpreter, the Maori brothers standing by and listening to the old man’s replies. By moving the fingers of witness’s right hand in various ways the interpreter was able to put to him questions of considerable length, and to receive from him equally lengthy verbal replies, which the old man made more forcible with realistic signs, on one occasion clearly portraying with his arms and hands an alleged assault made upon him by his nephew. It was evident that although defective in some respects, the old man possessed an alert and receptive brain, for on each occasion he fully comprehended the questions put to him, and frequently commenced his replies before the questions were finished.