THE MAORI TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14326, 23 March 1910, Page 8

THE MAORI TRAGEDY.

AN UNLUCKY SHOT. SHOOTING OF A FRIEND. Dktails concerning the shooting case at Waingaro, which resulted in the . death of a deaf mute named Te Ma'na. Horomona, and a charge of murder being laid against Matetu Puma, are supplied by our Raglan correspondent. Puma occupied.a whare some little distance from the Waingaro native settlement, and Horomona usually at a partlybuilt Maori store, a couple of hundred yards away. Monday night, the 14th inst., was dark and stormy, and soon after midnight Puma heard someone in the vicinity of his whare, where he .had been sitting up late engaged in business transactions with another native known as Jack Rawiri, who lives nt the settlement near by. The two went outside to investigate, Purua taking a double-barrelled breech-loading shotgun, with one loaded barrel, in his hand. Discerning a moving figure, they called out in both Maori .and English, and there being no response Purua fired at the nocturnal intruder, as his outline became dimly visible against the sky line. No cry or sound proceeded from the direction in which the shot was fired, and the two Maoris went into the whare and put out- the' light, afterwards retiring to. rest. - Next morning, about -seven o'clock, Rawiri was on his way home to the settlement, when, in passing through the scrub on tho, hillside, he came across Horomona, mortally wounded,- lying amidst tho tea-tree. Rawiri at once gave tho alarm, and the wounded man was curried to the. settlement, where he died a couple of hours later." " , Realising that trouble was in" store for Purua, and perhaps for others, some .of the natives showed a disposition ' to keep the matter to themselves arid- bury the body without acquainting the police of the occurrence, but a Maori, known as Napier, who is acquainted with pakeha wave, succeeded in impressing upon Purua that the safest course to adopt would be to go to Raglan and.tell'the constable what had happened; and wiser counsel thus prevailing, accompanied by Napier and another Maori, Purua set out for Raglan, where they arrived at nightfall. Constable o)Sullivan was sought, and acquainted with the facts of the case, and Puma was taken into custody, and placed in the lockup. ~ Next morning the constable secured the services of one of the local justices (Mr. F. W. Green) in the capacity of Acting-Coro-ner, half-a-dozen townsmen as a jury, Mr. Allan Gilmour as native interpreter, and Dr. Sanders, and the party journeyed to the Waingaro landing by launch, travelling to the Maori settlement, about a mile away, on foot. The body of Horomona, which lay in a tent, was viewed. Dr. Sanders made a post-mortem examination of the body, the evidence of the 'father of deceased was taken as to identification, and the inquest was then adjourned, Purua has been brought before Mr. F. W. Green, J.P., at Raglan, on a charge of murder, and remanded. The accused applied for permission to attend the burial of the man whose death ho '. had caused, but this was, of course, refused. Purua feels his position keenly, and it was pitiable to see him, just prior to the inquest, seated with his head in his hands, tears in his eyes, and his little daughter, a pretty child of six or seven, clasping her hands round his knees, in childish sympathy for her father in his trouble. Puma is barely 30 years of age, and is a bright, rather featured specimen of his race. According to the- evidence of the father of the dead man", as given at the inquest, accused and victim were on terms of friendship, and no cause for quarrel existed between them.