DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1038, 10 June 1924, Page 5

DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

NATIVE KILLS HIS WIFE. COMMITS SUICIDE NEXT DAY. Additional particulars of the tragedy at Waima, Hokianga, on Friday night, when Ruki Pane, a Maori, murdered his wife, show that the first news that the settlers there had of the occurrence wis when they were aroused by the children screaming that "father is killing mother." At once Mr Johnston, school teacher, accompanied by Mrs Johnston, his wife, and Mr Kelly, the local storekeeper, rushed up to the whare, and found the woman lying on the floor with her head badly battered and dying. They carried her to the hall, where" Mrs Johnston rendered what aid lay in her power. The police at Rawene and Kaikohe were notified. Constable Duddv, of the Rawene station, accompanied by Dr. Smith, reached \Vairna about 10.30 p.m., and Constable Clausen, of Kaikohe, arrived at 11 p.m. Dr. Smith pronounced tho woman's condition to be hopeless, and she died next morning. There was a sensational sequel. Ruki Pene, husband of the murdered woman, Raihi Pene, dying on the train on Saturday evening while he was being conveyed to Whangarei under arrest. It appears that Pene, after battering his wife's head with a stone, cleared out when the settlement was aroused on Friday night, but on Saturday morning he was located in a tree at the back of the Waima post oflice. Seeing that arrest was inevitable, he eviclenthv-madc a determined attempt at suicide. Handy to .the tree was a boulder-strewn creek, with about three feet of water. Pene called out to a man named Kelly, "I finish, make a job of it." Then he dived from the tree, head on, falling on the boulders, over a distance of 30 feet. When picked up he was suffering from concussion, but there was no signs of fracture. Under arrest he was brought 18 miles to Kaikohe, wherj he was formally charg; ed with tho murder of his wife, Raihi Pene, and remanded for seven days to Whangarei. He was placed on a stretcher in a van under police guard. Pene made no comment till half an hour before he expired, when he asked for a smoke. On arrival of the train at Maromakuthe prisoner was transferred to the charge of a Whangarei constable, who shortly afterwards noticed that Pene was unconscious, with sagging jaw, and he died as the train reached Whakapara. Word of the tragedy had spread, and a curious crowd gathered at the Whangarei railway station, but the body was swiftlv conveyed to the morgue. Examination " there by the police did not reveal anv outward sign on the body as to the cause of death, but a post mortem performed on Sundav elucidated that there was a small fracture at the base of the skull. Pene was a man of slight stature. It is believed that jealousy was the motive for the crime. Pene was 45 years of age and his wife was 50 yearse old. They had six children.