Maori Child's Disappearance

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 182, 4 August 1938, Page 6

Maori Child's Disappearance

Halted by Mother To Distant Friends SB<*OXL TO HOLDBT9 OF HOI Per Press Association. GISBORNE, Last Night. Efforts by natives of tho Waihau Bay area to trace a child wbo some time ago was handed by her mother to friends living at a distance had a sequel this week in an interview with the police on the part of relatives of the child and a subsequent interrogation of the mother and the adopted mother. An admission that the child had died from natural causes and had been buried without notification to the district coroner resulted from interrogation. Polico inquiries into tho matter are proceeding and a detective has been dispatched from Gisborne to continue the investigation with the aid of district constables. Tho Maoris of Waihau Bay have been much disturbed concerning tho disappearance of the child. It is stated that the mother of the child was a devotee of a Maori religious sect and that some motnhs ago her sister had a supernatural inspiration which led to the holding of a hui, to -which other members of the sect from as far afield as Hick's Bay wero invited, in the expectation of important revelations. At the hui, which did not produce the revelations anticipated, tho child was present in tho care of her adopted parents, and later was taken back to their home. Some of tho tribal elders later interested themselves in tho child's welfare, but could secure no information as to her whereabouts. Latterly, fearing some harm had come to the child, tho relatives informed Police-in-spector G. W. Edwards, who stated that the story told by tho Maori women concerning the death of the child from illness was being checked up and that further action would depend upon the results of this inquiry.