ALLEGED ASSAULT

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11878, 24 February 1933, Page 3

ALLEGED ASSAULT

CHRISTM AS .We fracas,

* ' THREE ACCUSED ACQUITTED

Evidence' was . completed yesterday in connection with the charges of allegedly lissnnlting James Dalrymple causing 'actual bodily harm, .in the Albion .Hotel-yard on Christmas Evo, brought against* .four Natives in the .Supreme Court,'before . His Honor, Mr. i Justice Blair. The .accused were Tommy Ahuriri, -Meni Katipa, John Kingi and*Jop Hoera, the quartette being •jointly charged with the offence. At?the conclusion of the Crown case, ■ His Honor directed the jury in a verdict of not-guilty against all .accused • except Hoera. Evidence for •the defence was then heard; and His Honor, intimated that he ’would sum up this,morning. . ; . • Mr.- F. W. Nolan prosecuted, Mr. As A; Whitehead appeared for Ahuriri 'andjMr. L. T. .Burnard, with him Mr* :Sa V ; -*'Beaufoy, -for'the other three accused-, 'Alt pleaded not guilty. The following jury- was empanelled: ; Alfred J; Cox'(foreman), Francis 8. Woodbury, Bryan M. Terry, George Lynskey, George T. F. Forbes, John Hutchinson, -Ernest B. Forrest, Wiliam McDonald, jun., Percy H.- -Smith, Han*v J. Bacon, Vincent R. Nonnan, and ; Ernest-W. Forrest.

Dr. F. Kahleuberg was the first witness and he gave details of the injuries suffered by complainant. He had abrasions on his face, an apparently black eye and a broken, jaw. Witness sent him to hospital.

' Dr. Garth Stoneham, who was house surgeon at Coolc Hospital when Dalrymple was admitted, stated that •complainant bad a lacerated wound over the left eyebrow, a black eve and a fracture of the lower jaw. He was a patient in the hospital for about three weeks. -Tames Dalrymple stated that on Christmas Eye he was with Fred Galloway and Roy Brown. The three of them wore, free labourers at the freezing works. About 8 o’clock they Went, round to the hack of the Albion .Hotel'and, on. coming out, were accosted by four Maoris who called them filthy names and "scabs.’' The Maoris surrounded witness and he was knocked unconscious. He was bit on the bock of the head for n start and had a lump on his head for some days. .His next recollection after the blow was his coming-to hv n water-tap in the yard. Brown and Galloway were there when he came to his senses. TVlion the Maoris hit him he had done nothing to offend them, ho had not scon any of them before and could nob identify them now. . .

Cross-examined by Mr. Burnard, witness stated that be did not know whether the Maoris had worked at the works at all. He knew of no dispute between them —except that he was a free labourer. Witness was quite certain the word “scab” was used., That afternoon he had four drinks in all. He intended going home for ten, but missed the bus. The four Natives came round abreast and they were on the hotel premises coming down the alleyway beside the hotel.

Counsel: Were they intoxicated?

Witness: I didn’t really notice

Did one of them say to you: "Give us a orinb, you —No. Did you have any bottle with you P —No.

Considering the season, if you had had a. bottle, wouldn’t it have been natural for them to come and ask you for a drink?—l don’t think so. Couldn’t you have avoided any trouble?—lf they were looking f° r fight, a fellow couldn’t very well have got out of it. Did-you-expect a fight?—Not exfi'cfely..*. -r.h.-r.".r "' : DuTn’t yon say to them -. "Who are scabs and ?”—Yes, T thought they were mistaken.

Why?—lf is not a nice thing to be called.

Did you walk up to them and say that?—No, I just stepped up to them, i was really wanting an- apology. ' I thought they hacl made a mistake and I expected an apology from them. Were you inviting a fight?—No, certainly not.

Didn’t you walk straight up to Katipa and catch him by the collar? —No. • Didn’t you hold him till Brown' told you to let him go?—No. After letting one Native go, you turned to another?—l didn’t hay© hold of any Native. Did you hear a Native say to you, "Why pick on me?’.'—No. Mr. Whitehead: How long were you in the Albion yard?

Witness: A matter of minutes. Were' von or yOur companions excited? —I wasn’t and from what I could see neither were my companions.

You were not discussing the freezing works at all?—No. It was getting quite dusk?—Yes. Were'the Natives excited?’—They didn’t appear to be'. Was there anything in the demeanour of the Natives to show that they iwere plotting against you in any slhiape or form ?—Not until they spoke.

They were walking in. your direction?—Yes.

When the remark was made had they reachod you? —No> quite. They were a, pace or two away.

There was no reason why you should think the remark was meant for you rather.than for your friend's? —They seemed to throw the remark right at mo.

In what way,—They threw their attention at me; they looked at mo, looking rather savage, too.

Why did you step up to them P—lt .wasn’t a very nice thing to say. I thought they had made a mistake. Were you excited?—No, quite calm. Were the Natives excited?—They appeared to be menacing when I first saw thorn-

I Mr Nolan (re-examining): Wero you inside the Albion Hotel building that night at all P 1 .

Witness: No. How long were you in the yard? —Not more than ten minutes. . Frederick Galloway, butcher, employed at Haiti works, recalled' being with Dalrymple ap{ Brown .on

Christmas Eye. They were talking be.hind the- Albion Hotel when tho 'Maoris arrive'd on tho scone. Ono .of tlie Natives '• rof hrred ’to them as ‘ ‘scabs and ——’’. Dalrymplo stepped out and tho Maoris, by that time, had come behind. When Dalrymple mailed out, ho received .no reply. Next moment Dalrymplo wn’s struck by somebody, though witness could not say who was responsible. There were only tho. Maoris there, however. When struck Dalrymple immediately fell down. Witness went forward, picked Dalrymple up, shook him and dragged him to the.water tap about six or seven-yards away. The: Maoris- had then moved to a corner nearby and witness went to them, asking who had struck Dalrymple. Witness was then struck by ono of the Maoris, by whom ho could not say, and he fell to the ground, with one Maori on top of him. While witness was on the ground this .Maori struck him again and lie, knew little more, as he was knocked out. When he recovered his senses, two strangers were attending to him and there was no sign of the Maoris; Dalrymple was lying on the ground-then and witness assisted hirii across to n chemist’s shop. (lav Tomlin Brown, who wa« with Dalrymple and Galloway nn Christmas Eye, gave corroborative, evidence. Witness stated that Hoera* was the Maori who hit Dalrymple. the latter receiving two blows and falling on the concrete l . W'tness was not certain which of the Maoris hit. Galloway. At that time Katina caught bold of witness. Witness asked him to let o*o, so they could stop the argument; Katipa agreed and. with the aid of some strangers, they «tonno.d the fight. Witne'ss could idenGfv Hoera and Katina as two of the Maoris present. hut he was not certain of the other two. Defective McLeod crave evidence regarding statements obtained from the nreused. Constable Kinrr cnrrnhmwtpd the ov'dnnce of" tbe previous witness. This concluded the case, for He

fh-wn. TT'S TTi-.-v.nr nm-nrnorHod flint il p.ncinn-i -in him there was no case acr—,vn~f. R"ntina.. Mr XTfVtjvn orvrnpcl W'Oi line' WOW, His Honor pointed nut to the jury that there was no evidenco as to Katipa striking a blow. Ho even nttomnod to keep Brown, liis friend, out of the trouble and Dion gave nssist--anoo in stopning the trouble. There seemed no evidence again’st him and therefore he would ask them to bring in at verdict of not guilty. Without leaving the hex, the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty and Katipa was discharged.

* Mr Burnard submitted that Kingi was in a similar position, stating that this accused took nn part, in the attack nn Gallownv.

'Mr Nolgn. agreed (hat tho only evidence against Kingi was in lu's own statement that lie had struck a man, presumably Gallowav. His Honor pointed out that. Hie ohareo again'st Kingi was not substantiated by any evidence, as the only testimony was Ids own to the effect that he had struck Galloway. That was outside the present charge, therefore ho would stress there wa's no evidence against this accused also.

The jury, again without- leaving the. hox, brought in a verdict of not guilty against Kingi. Mr Whitehead then submitted that, the lack of evidence was even more emphatic in the case of Ahuriri. Mr Nolan agreed there wa's no direct evidence and, on His Honor’s suggestion, the jury brought *n a verdict of not guilty against Abu-

The first witness for the defence was R. 0. Ball, manager of the. municipal bus service, who gave evidence n : s to the starting times of buses on Christmas! Eve. The last bus left the Post Office at 0.30 p.-m.- and thereafter -loft for Manga-papa,' from •Peel street corner.

Meni Katipa. stated that, with Hoorn, Ahuriri and Kingi, he went to the’ back of the Albion Hotel on Christmas Eve. He saw Dalrymple, Galloway and Brown there. Witness called out, "Give us a drink”, for ho noticed one of them had a bottle. He did oof, use any other words in making the request. Dalrymple thereupon stepped towards witness, saying something which witness did not •quite catch. The four Natives kept on walking and Dalrymple came up to witnes's, caught him by the collar and said something to.him. Witness asked Dalrymple to let him go, but met with a refusal. Turning round witness saw Brown, whom he had known at school, and Asked him i[' be knew Dalrymple, saying, ‘‘Do you know this man?” Brown did not answer, but later said to Dalrymple, j "Let him go, Jim.” Dalrymple complied and then walked round towards Hoera and Almriri. Witness spoke to Brown and then heard what sounded tike a blow. Again he heard a blow and turned round in time to soo Da'JrympJie falling to the concrete. Brown turned to go towards the fight and witness held him back, telling him not to get mixed up in it. Brown suggested stopping the fight, so witness let him go and they both went over to the struggle. Dalrymple was on the ground and somebody had him by; the Shoulder, trying to lift him up. Soon after Kingi had a fight with somebody other than Dalrymple, Galloway and Brown. Witness separated this pair and they shook hands. He did not know that anybody had beon seriously hurt. Tommy Ahuriri stated that he carno ‘from To Araroa to Gisborne on December 21 and ho met Hoera on December: 23. On Christmas Eve ho was with Hoera and they met the other two Maoris by accident. They walked about the streets and then to the back of the Albion Hotel. In. the alleyway they saw three pakehas standing together, one with a bottle of beer in his hand. Witness dul not know any of them and he was not a member of- any union. The pre'sent was his fourth visit to Gisborne. Katipa called out to the pakehas, Give us a drink, y°n —” f pakehas came along and wanted to know who thoy were calling a • Ho made straight for Katipa and put tho question to him. Katipa mum i e something, but witness didn’t hear what) it was. Later Katipa .mentioned

the name Brown as one of the pakelias and, after some talk, the pakeha came round and grabbed hold of' Hoera, then starting to pester liim witli the intention of starting a fight. The pakeha called Hoera a “black ——” and the latter then asked the pakeha to take oil’ his coat. After further exchange of remarks, Hoera hit the pnkcha and he flopped down. “And .subsequent proceedings interested him no more", remarked his Honor.

IToera. then took off bis coat, and asked if there were any more, added witness.. - -* - ' ■■ ~

‘‘‘Challenging the world", said His J: to nor.

Witness explained there were no acceptances 10 the challenge and went on to describe the happenings on the lines of the previous testimony. Eventually Hoera aucl witness went outside, where they waited for the other two. Finally they went iii to got them, but were unsuccessful, and Hoera said to leave them. The next thing was that they noticed Kingi and the pakeha having a light. Untili witness was spoken to by tlio constable at To Araroa witness did not know that Dalrymple had been injured. Cross-examined by -Mr Nolan, witness stated that, in his original statement to the police, lie said nothing about one of the pakehas having, a bottle. This concluded the evidence.

Addressing the jury, Sir Barnard contended that the Europeans could not say how the trouble arose, while the Maoris made a frank statement, Katipa admitting the remark which started the dispute. It was only natural to expect Dalrymple, when he heard the remark made to him, to make a set at the man who. used the remark, this man being, so the Maoris said, Meui Katipa. There was a surprising resemblance between the Stories told to the police by the different Natives, told when they did not know anything serious bad happened. The pakehas had had some drink that night and it was obvious that this was one of the main causes of the whole trouble. His Honor intimated that he would sum Up this morning and adjourned the hearing until 9.45 a.m. to-day.

“During a time of strain one hesitates to say anything io embarrass those is authority, but the protest of our Synods last year against the meagre provision made for married men on relief work must be sustained and emphasised." said the Rev. J. Sea in or, president of* the Methodist Conference, at Auckland, when riio question of unemployment came before the conference on Wednesday. "We must also continue to protest against the kind of non-productive useless tasks relief workers ere "HU frequently given,"' he oontiiiuid. '“Our * authorities have' * lnvdample time for the adoption of « sounder policy. To watch some relief workers at their tasks and note then* attitude and style is io realise something of the effect upon character of giving a man work which fie recognises is of little or no. value." Resolutions expressing the views of the conference submitted by the Public Questions Committee, were referred back for further consideration.