MAORI TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22612, 2 July 1935, Page 10

MAORI TRAGEDY

MURDER AND SUICIDE PATHETIC LETTERS LEFT e The inquest concerning the death of Fraser Edwards (Pereiha Erueti), a labourer, aged 60, and his wife, Mary Edwards (Maraetai Erueti), aged 31, whose deaths occurred in the Parakao district on June 10, was concluded at Whangarei on Thursday last. Mrs Edwards was found dead, and Edwards died shortly after the police and the doctor arrived. Dr H. F. Buckley, who examined the two bodies, described the wounds that caused death in each case. He also referred to the finding of an axe and a knife in the whare. Senior Sergeant Finch produced the following note, which was affixed to the whare door: —“June 9, 1935. Mr Brown, it’s worth reporting now; you got something for it and good-bye. The house is unlocked. You will see us on the bed sleeping for ever and ever, amen.” Another note, found in the whare, reads: “If she wasn’t going to leave me J don’t do such thing. Wat is the good of me living when I am this ill state, and I had the worry and suffer almost every day ? ” James Cross, licensed Native interpreter, interpreted a note written in Maori and tacked to the cookhouse door, as follows: —“June 9, 1935.—This is to notify that we have died, myself and my rangatira, on the bed and lying in accordance with the custom of our elders and according to the Scriptures. The price of sin is death. The house was not locked. Now man understands the way of his sinning.” The coroner’s verdict was that Mrs Edwards died of wounds inflicted by her husband, and that the latter died from wounds self-inflicted.