SUICIDE AT WHAKAKI

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11011, 25 January 1926, Page 5

SUICIDE AT WHAKAKI

ALLEGED SEQUEL TO FAMILY ROW. MAORI FARAIER HANGS HIMSELF. (Special to the Times.)

.. • . WAUIOA Jan. 2-4. The quietness of the secluded farming district of Whakaki, a few miles outside of Wairoa, was rudely disturbed yesterday morning by a tragedy which started in a family row and ended up in the master of the house Ruru Karukura, a "farmer, hanging himself from the rafters of one of the bedrooms of his home. From information received by the police it appears that Karukura had a row with other inmates of his home during the morning, and the dispute became so heated that, so it is allegr ed, he eventually beat his wife and turned 1 her and the family outside, refusing to allow them back again. • • After waiting outside for a while, the eldest girl, Hinera, aged 16 years, decided to endeavor to make peace and approached the house. Not seeing her father, and hearing a noise in one of the bedrooms, she opened the door, when the sight of her father on his knees suspended by a rope from one of the rafters met her startled gaze. Her cries soon brought the rest of the family to the scene and Karukura was immediately cut down and neighbors summoned', but, though artificial respiration was applied for some time, the doctor on arrival could only pronounce life extinct.