MURDER CHARGE

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 6

MURDER CHARGE

GEORGE RAMEHA'S TRIAL ACCUSED GIVES EVIDENCE [Prat United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, August 5. Tho hearing of evidence in the defence of George Rameka, who is on trial on a charge of murdering Mrs Gwendoline Johnson, was continued today. M'anene Brown, a Maori ganger, said that the deceased had come to his lodgings with Rameka, and he often went to her flat. They seemed to behave “like man and wife.” He saw Rameka give her £24, his winnings at the races. An ambulance driver, who took Ramcka to the hospital, said his symptoms were similar to the after effects of an epileptic lit. George Graham, an authority on the Maori raco, said they were very jealous of their racial pedigree. A Maori who was called a “nigger” would receive a mental shock and would “see dark,” which was equivalent to a European “ seeing red.” The accused Rameka then gave evidence through au interpreter. He said ho had had three sisters and thirteen brothers. Only ho and one sister were now alive. A first cousin of his had killed her baby. Another cousin at Waitara had killed her adopted child. He went to the war at. the age of fifteen, and was there for over two years. He said at' the war he was digging trenches and also looking after wire entanglements in No Mams Land. Ho was gassed at Messines, and when he returned to New Zealand ho received hospital treatment fo>- war wounds. Sometimes ho suffered from depression, which seemed to rken his outlook. He knew the deceased as Miss Driscoll. She told him that she was a well-to-do woman from England, that she came from Wellington, and was engaged while there. The first night he met her she told him that Mrs Keesing (her landlady) was her aunt. After ho and she had been together for a while he loved her, and she responded. When he gave her £24 it was arranged that the fact should not be made known to her family. She told him she_ was waiting for 'money from her family’s estate in Wellington, and would repay him in three months. The accused said he used to visit Mrs Johnson every night when she was sick. Sometimes he stayed until 1 o’clock He had often been alone with her for poripds up to two hours. He went to the Ellerslie races and the Epsom trots with Mrs Johnson and her daughter as her “ tana ” (unmarried husband). The beginning cf the trouble between them was at the trots, when she asked him to get a taxi. He told Her he was broke. She said that “ all the lovers she had bad anything to do with had always taken her home in comfort.” The next day, in a fit of depression, ho bought poison, contemplating suicide. That night she told him she did not want him any more. He asked 1 Why?” and she said because he showed her up at the trots. He was “full of jealousy and temper,” and threatened suicide. She said she did not care, and anyway he would not be game. Then the thought of his child came to him, and he decided to defer the act.