MAORI’S STOICISM

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1933, Page 4

MAORI’S STOICISM

AMPUTATES HIS OWN LEG.

AUCKLAND, January t>

The “Star’s” correspondent at Rawene, North Auckland, reports that J. Henry, a Maori, who is now an inmate of the Rawene Hospital, has been through an experience in which he exhibited stoic endurance that rnusu have few parallels in the history of pioneering. While he was felling hush in the back country behind Rangiah.ua, a tree in falling hit another tree, and sliding back on its stump, pinned Henry by a leg against the trunk of the tree.

“When the tree jammed my leg,” said Henry, “I could not move, buf, I could look down and see my leg being slowly crushed to pulp. Gradually the tree rolled over and freed mv leg, and I then crawled to the top of the hill and called to my mate, who was a few chains away. When he came I sent him to get my dinner hag, and I took out a' dinner knife and cut off the crushed leg. We used our belts and tied them as tightly as possible above the knee. I then got on my mate’s back, and he carried me out of the bush. It was a terrible journey. My dog stayed behind, and when my mate went back two days later to bury the leg he was still guarding it, and the dinner bags.” Henry is now rapidly recovering.