MAORI GIRLS

Evening Star, Issue 22798, 5 November 1937, Page 8

MAORI GIRLS

ENTITLED TD SAME PROTECTION AS EUROPEANS TWO NATIVES SENTENCED FOR SERIOUS OFFENCES [Per United Press Association.] GISBORNE, November 5. Commenting that members of the Maori race would agree that their womenfolk had to be protected, and adding that it was a case calling for exemplary punishment, Mr Justice Ostler to-day sentenced Watarawi Tatate, alias Walter Wilson, to three years’ hard labour for indecent assault. The evidence on which the jury convicted the accused showed that he had driven a 17-ycar-old girl to his whare against her will, had given her a black eye and had otherwise injured her before threatening her with a knife and frightening her into spending the night with him. The accused was married with two children, hut for some time had been living with the elder sister of the complainant, the sister having been present at the time of the assault, Tieki Mauhana. convicted on two charges of carnal knowledge of a girl aged 14, was sentenced to six months imprisonment, the judge commenting I that Maori girls wore entitled to the same protection as Europeans.