TOHUNGAISM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 25 October 1917, Page 3

TOHUNGAISM

NATIVE FINED AT GISBORNE. [United Press Association.) GISBORNE, Oct. 23. An elderly Native named Ramiera Tarairi was fined £25 and £9 7s costs, by Mr Barton, S.M., to-dayon a charge under the Tohunga Suppression Act. The charge arose out ol a recent attempt at suicide by a Native, who alleged that defendant had bewitched him. Amusing evidence was given by the Native witnesses. The wife of the man who attempted suicide said she was undeil defendant's treatment at Napier. He commanded her to return to Gisborne, pour boiling water in her boxes to exorcise spirits, and on reaching Gisborne to spit on the sand and draw her left heel through the spittle. Other Native gave evidence that defendant, when consulted for various ills, ma.de the sign of the cross over them and prayed for them. ITl'ey described him as a man of prayer, and said that at the meeting house he prayed night and morning. Mr Burnard, who appeared for the defendant, ux-ged that there was little difference in these accounts of defendant's acts and in what is done in the orthodox methods of Christianity. The Magistrate fixed the penalty for default period, at two months.