MURDER TRIAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 August 1931, Page 5

MURDER TRIAL

DEATH OF MRS JOHNSON CASE FOR DEFENCE OPENED (By Telegraph—Press Association) AUCKLAND, This Day. Admitting that the fact that accused killed Mrs Johnson could not be disputed, but claiming that at the time of the killing he did not know the nature and quality of his act, Mr Noble, counsel for George Rameka opened the case for the defence. Evidence would be called to show that there yras talk of marriage between deceased and accused. Then without any warning there came sudden disillusionment, and all accused’s dreams of love and happiness came clattering about his ears. The treatment Rameka received so worked on his mind that he was practically driven to a state of - delirium. He told the woman he was going to kill himself, and she replied—"Go away, you nigger, we do not want to have anything more to do with you.” If there was one thing more than another that- Maoris were proud of it was that they were not “niggers.” To them the name was an unpardonable insult. Rameka went into a frenzy pnd remembered nothing more about it until in Auckland Hospital he was charged with murder. He certainly did not know the nature and quality of his act nor that lie was doing wrong. A second ground of defence was that by the sudden insult the accused was so provoked that he lost control of himself. Several witnesses gave evidence that on occasions accused acted strangely. A fellow-worker said he seemed a bitqueer. r ACCUSED GIVES EVIDENCE AUCKLAND, This Day. The hearing of evidence in defence of George Rameka was continued to-day. Marene Brown, a Maori ganger, said deceased had come to his lodgings with Rameka, and he often went to her fiat. They seemed to behave “like man and wife.” He saw Rameka give her £24, his winnings at the races. The ambulance driver who took Rameka to hospital said his symptoms were similar to the after effects of an epileptic fit. George Graham, an authority on the Maori race, said they were very jealous of their racial pedigree. A Maori who was called a “nigger” would receive a mental shock and would “see dark,” equivalent to the European “seeing red.” ■

Accused Rameka then gave evidence through an interpreter.. He said he had three sisters and thirteen brothers. Only lie and one sister were now alive. A first cousin of his had killed her baby. Another cousin at Waitara had killed her adopted child. He went to the war at the age of 15, and was there over two years. Rameka said that at the war lie was digging trenches and also looking after wire entanglements in No Man’s Land. He' was; gassed at Messines, and when he returned to New Zealand he received hospital treatment for war wounds. Sometimes he suffered from depression, which seemed to darken his outlook. He knew deceased as Miss Driscoll. She tolcl him she was a well-to-do woman from England, that she came from Wellington, and was engaged while there. The first night he met her she told him Mrs Keesing, her landlady, was her aunt. After he and she had been together awhile he loved her; and she responded. When he gave her the £24 it was arranged that the fact should not bo made known to her family. She told him she was waiting for money from her family’s estate in Wellington, and would repay him in three months. Accused said he used to visit Mrs Johnson every night when she was sick. Sometimes he stayed until 1 o’clock. Ho had often been alone with her for periods up to two hours. He went to the Ellerslie races and the Epsom trots with Mrs Johnson and her daughter as her tana (unmarried husband). The beginning of trouble between them was at the trots, when she asked him to get a taxi. He told her he was broke, and she said that all the lovers she had had anything to do with had always taken her home in comfort. The next day in a fit of depression he bought poison, contemplating suicide. That night she told him she did not want him any more. He asked why, and she said because he showed her up at the trots. He was “full of jealousy and temper.” He threatened suicide and she'said she did not care, and anyway he would not be game. Then the thought of his child came to him, and ho decided to defer the act.