TUNI EXECUTED

Evening Star, Issue 18254, 19 April 1923, Page 9

TUNI EXECUTED

“ SOME DEMON POSSESSED ME."

A FULL CONFESSION.

THE MAORI DIES CALMLY.

[Per United Press Association.]

WELLINGTON, April 19,

John Tuhi, the young Maori who was sentenced to death for the murder of Herbert Henry Knight at Johnsonville, was executed in the Terrace Gaol this morning. The condemned man was quite calm, and walked to the scaffold, where he thanked the gaol officials and the priest for their kindnesses and attention. THE CONFESSION.

Tuhi, in a statement witnessed by Gaoler Scanlon, made a full confession of the crime. He said:

I am guilty of the crime for which I have been condemned. As_ I am. about to pass into eternity I realise the awful nature of the crime of murder. I cannot explain the motive that prompted me to do the awful deed. Some demon must have taken possession of me. No one else is guilty. I alone am to blame. All the accusations I made against unknown persons are untrue; also all I said about the treatment meted out to mo by detectives is likewise untrue. The only reparation I can make is first of all to make this confession of my guilt to the public. APPEAL TO PUBLIC.

Tuhi asks the public not to think 100 harshly of him, but to remember that he ig a Native, with different ideas and disposition from the pakcha; to consider his surroundings and upbringing.