FLOWING A NATIVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14143, 19 August 1909, Page 5

FLOWING A NATIVE.

A STINGAREE-TAIL WHIP.

CHARGES AGAINST A MISSIONARY

By Telegraph.—Press. Assonifttion.—Copyright.

(Received August 18, 9.25 p.m.) ; Brisbane, August 18. Government. officials' toHday" concluded an' inquiry into, the grave charges made against ; the Rev. Nicholas Hey, superintendent of . the ..Mapoon Aboriginal , Mission, involving alleged cruelty to natives.

- The charges were made by Michael Baltzer, and were circulated in Germany last year by. a sister of Baltzer, and communicated officially by Bishop Lutrobe, of, the Moravian Board of Missions, to the Australian Presbyterian Board of Missions, who - control the Mapoon Settlement.

. . Baltzer alleged ' that a half-caste girl, Ellen, had been unmercifully beaten with a stingaree-tail whip, for striking Mrs. Hey. : . "_ • ;. , : Baltzer,-in his evidence before the inquiry, stated ; that the flogging , had been carried out by Hey and himself,- at the former's instigation.

Ellen, in her evidence, admitted being flogged, and' that, a dinghy chain Lad been put round ' her neck after it, but with the exception of that one beating, said, she had been kindly treated at the mission. •. .. . • ■ '■ .. r '. -

Mr. Hey, in his evidence, stated that Ellen was whipped for assaulting his wife. He explained to the children who witnessed the punishment why It was given, and' how .serious the offence was. The girl received 25 cuts, not 100, as had been alleged by Baltzer. He asked the latter to • carry out the punishment, as he did not Uike to inflict corporal punishment on anyone • himself. He considered it a severe whipping, and he would have administered the same punishment to one of his . own children under the same circumstances.

It appears that Baltzer, 1 in August of last year, wrote to the Moravian Mission Board • voluntarily retracting the charges made against the Rev. N. Hey. Other charges were preferred by Baltzer, but as he could only 'offer hearsay evidence they were struck out, and the Bench, after full •inquiry, dismissed the charge against Hey. . . v ,