MURDERED GUMDIGGER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 108, 21 April 1911, Page 5

MURDERED GUMDIGGER

GRUESOME DETAILS.

PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Whangarei, April 21.

The following further details of the Puhipuhi murder are to hand: With Tahi Kapa in close custody, the police* travelled into the heart of the bush, over precipitous tracks, to a deep gully down which Kaka confessed having thrown his victim after murdering him with a stick on the ridge above which Freeman was engaged in gumdigging. The murder occurred on the sth inst. , The remains are in such a decomposed state that the head had' fallen from the trunk.

The skull was frightfully battered.

Kaka showed callous and actually offered to help the police in this gruesome duty. The remains were placed in an improvised stretcher and conveyed to Hikurangi, thence into Whangarei by train. The prisoner was brought down by the same train, apparently totally unconcerned. The inquest opens to-day, and will probably be adjourned untiL Monday, pending the presence of important witnesses.

Puhipuhi, April 21. Kaka was formally charged with the murder and remanded.

Medical evidence at the inquest showed the bone at the back of the victim’s head was One arm dropped off from decay, and there was not a particle of flesh on the skull. The death of the murdered man must have been almost instantaneous. The inquest was adjourned until Monday.