ALLEGED CHILD MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19163, 31 October 1925, Page 14

ALLEGED CHILD MURDER.

YOUNG MAORI WOMAN. INFANT FOUND IN RIVER. [BY TEI^EGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] GISBORNE. Friday. Pourewa Maru, a young single Maori woman, was charged in the Police Court to-day, that, at To Arai on October 7, she murdered her infant male child.' Detective McLeod said accused was an adopted child and had resided at Te Arai about 20 years. On October 8 the body of a child was found in the river, as the result of which inquiries were made. Accused was found ill in bed. Subsequently she admitted that she had given birth to a child and thrown it into the river. In the course of evidence it was elicited that accused had never been to school and had no education, her whole life having been spent assisting her foster parents. I)r. Gunn deposed that the body was that of a fully developed male child. There were no external marks of violence, but a piece of cloth had been tied lightly across the mouth and nose. Death, iu his opinion, was due to asphyxia. The case is not concluded.