WAIPAWA TRAGEDY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 4 January 1923, Page 5

WAIPAWA TRAGEDY.

I 4 FURTHER PARTICULARS. LITTLE HOPE FOR THE WOMAN. (BT TELEGEAPH— PKESS ASSOCIATION.) WAIPAWA, Jan. 2. th™ZX S\X could not bear the thought of living without his wife, who ■was about to leave him, Puhi Maiha, a Maori labourer, Jiving at Mataweka Pa, two nines from Waipawa, first battered h IXX «'-*£ a hammer, and then shot lnmselt dead Maiha, who was about oo years old, had been married ten years to his wife, Linda, who was young enough to be his daughter. A tew days ago, while the pair were working at a shearing shed near Waipawa, the husband was told by a married half-caste that he intended to take his (Madia's) wife away from him A tnend of Maiha, named Elkington, was present. Maiha called his wife, who admitted that she intended lea vino- him because she loved the other man" better. The knowledge preyed on Maiha's mind, and yesterday morning he asked Elkington to drive him from Waipawa to his home. ~ on, the way Maiha told Elkington that he could not live without his wife. Elkington was frightened at his friend's attitude, and on reaching Maiha's home hid his shotgun. During the day i Maiha, who was an abstemious man ' usually, went to town and returned with a bottle of whisky, which he drank at intervals during the night. Elkington was still more frightened, and sat up all night. About 5 a.m. Maiha asked Elkington to have his wife brought, in order that he might make a final appeal to her. Elkington's wife and Mrs Maiha arrived lated. In the meantime another Maori, a Morman elder, had been with Maiha trying to calm his mind. Maiha tried to induce Elkington and his wife and another girl to leave, but they were afraid to go. The wife told Elkington that she intended leaving the house to join the other man at Waipukurau, and leave by the 2 o'clock train. From outside the house Elkington hear Maiha appealing finally to his wife not to leave him. She went on dressing while he followed her from room to room. Terrified at the possible consequences, Elkington set out to get a neighbour, but was recalled by hisl wife, who said she heard sounds inside ' the house. He rushed through the front door and into the bedroom, where he beheld Maiha striking his wife with a hammer. She Avas not complaining, but reiterated in Maori one word, meaning "O Daddy," the name by which Maiha was affectionately known. Elkington pulled tne infuriated husband; away out of the house, Maiha not resisting. Then with his wife Elkington returned to the aid "of the woman, whom i7o,y saw lying on her side. _ Thinking her dead, they want outside again aud saw Maiha coming from n shed. 40 yards away, with a shot- j gun.. He approached the house hurriedly, pointing the gun at ihe Elk- ' ingtons and the girl. Mrs Elkington, j thinking he was about to sk/xit, cried: ! "Puhi, you wouldn't do that." Maiha! replied, in Maori, "If you come near i me I'll shoot the three." They then : pi.it lip their hands, and saw Maiha turn the gun on himself and fire. He fell immediately, but crawled ten or fifteen yards. He rose to his feet again, opened the breech of the gun, extracted the dead cartridge, and inserted a live one. Paralysed with fear, ■ the three spectators saw him point the muzzle under his chin aud fire, and blow his brains out. Word of the tragedy reached Constable o'Halloran in fifteen minutes, • and with a doctor he went to the pa. In the bedroom he found the wife lying ing in a pool °f blood with two large gashes in" the heaq. One finger was smashed and auother was almost severed by th© wedding ring, which had been struck by the hammer. The doctor ascertained that her skull was fractured, ar.d ordered her to the county hospital. Ten yards outside the house Maiha was found lying on his back on the grass with, a gun alongside him. Near I him where he first fell was a pool of j blood. Nothing could be done for him j but take his body to the morgue. > The wife lies in a precarious condition, and is not expected to recover. ' Maiha and his wife wero well known and respected in the small community, and had apparently always, been happy. They had" one child, which died, and' before the end Maiha was heard appealing to his wife' in memory of the child to abandon her intention of leav-,, ing him. The man with whom Mrs ! Maiha was going away is a half-caste Maori, already married, and his wife is at present lying ill in the same hospital to which Mrs Maiha was taken. j