CRUELTY TO WIFE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1933, Page 6

CRUELTY TO WIFE

t HALF-CASTE IMPRISONED. ; > ■ J [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] j ROTORUA, August 11. A ' Remarking that the accused could • count himself lucky that he was not I on his way to the scaffold, as he pro- , bably would have been had he not been interrupted. Mr. S. L. Paterson, . S.M., to-day sentenced a half-caste Maori blacksmith, Thomas Oneroa, to ' 21 days’ imprisonment, with a further probationary term, on a charge of assaulting his wife. . On the night of August 2, while Mrs. Oneroa, with a woman companion, was on her way to a dance, she was accosted by the accused, -who took her aside and commenced an argument with her. He then knocked her down, and had kicked her about the head and neck as she lay on the ground, when he was interrupted by a passerby, and he made off into the darkness. He was not found for another five days, despite a police search, but was finally arrested at Horahora, a native settlement, about 12 miles from Rotorua. When brought before the Court on a charge of assault and of molesting his wife during the currency of a separation order. Oneroa pleaded guilty. The Magistrate said that, although Oneroa had had a good record as a returned soldier, there was evidence of previous assaults upon his wife. He had committed a most dastardly attack, and one which w*as inexplainable in view of his previous reputation. The accused was sentenced to 21 days’ imprisonment on a charge of molesting, and to two years’, probation on a charge of assault. He was also ordered to take out a prohibition order and not to. live in the same town as his wife during the currency of the order.