MURDER BY A NATIVE ON THE EAST COAST.

Evening Post, Volume XII, Issue 131, 1 December 1875, Page 2

MURDER BY A NATIVE ON THE EAST COAST.

(New Zealand Herald, 26th November.) A gentleman who arrived from the East Coast yesterday, informs us of an affair which occurred last week at To Teko, a native - settlement in the Bay of Plenty, inland, between Maketu and Opotiki. A week or t>vo ago a Maori died at Te Teko, and it seems that his. friends held a kind of inquest into the cause of death. They had not a post mortem examination, nor did they examine any professional witnesses as to the cause of, death. How they came to a conclusion we do not know, but atall events they seem to have had no doubt about their verdict which was to the effect that the man's death had been caused by being bewitched by an old man, a tohnnga or prophet, named Tv«, kino. This was the verdict, and a rider was added, to the effect that Tukino should be shot to prevent similar occurrences in the future. A man named Himiona was deputed to carry out the behests of the Court, and on yesterday week he made his appearance at Te Teko with a double-bar-relled gun, with which he straightway, without the least fuss or warning, blew out Tukino's brains, and thus put an end to his piophecies and his witchcraft. Soon after the affair, Captain Preece, who is in charge of the contingent of the Armed Constabulary at Te Teko, heard of it, and decided that it was his duty to arrest Himiona. For that , purpose he despatched messengers to Fort Galatea, in' struoting the officer there to send out men to arrest Himiona as he went homewards towards the Uriwera country. A number of men went out, two of whom concealed themselves in the scrub alongside one of the tracks leading into the interior, leaving their horses at some considerable distance away. It happened, however, that Himiona had a boy riding before, Jiim on the track, and when this boy's horse got opposite the place where the men where concealed it started, seeing which Himiona galloped off in another direction. Pursuit was hopeless, and the chase was abandoned. • Whether it will ever be renewed we do not know, but the affair shows that ths man* ncrs and customs of the ancient Maori still exist in the land.