MAORI SENT TO GAOL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17502, 26 February 1931, Page 8

MAORI SENT TO GAOL

A SERIOUS OFFENCE CASE FROM TOKOMARU BAY A term of three months’ imprisonment was inflicted on Sydney Christie by Mr. .Justice MacGregor in the Supreme Court to-day for carnal iknowledgo at Tokomani Bay. The accused pleaded guilty. Mr. it. B. Hill, for the accused, after mentioning that Christie was a Maori, referred to the girl in the case. Maori conditions, lie added, differed from those of the pakeha, and all slept together in the pa. The Maori did not understand the rules of morality. We had come to the country and conquered him. His Honor: That does not help you much.

Mr. Hill: Can we judge the Maori like we judge the European. Does he look at morality like Your Honor does and like I do? He has his ancestors behind him. You cannot put a. man in the dock and ask him to conform to the (Mimes Act in a generation. There is probably in his blood that of cannibals. Again His Honor interrupted, and asked Mr. Ilill to confine himself to the case.

Mr. Hill added that one could not judge the Maori in tho same light as a pakeha in view of the different training. According to tho way the accused looked at the incident, it was no more a crime than having his breakfast. He asked for as lenient treatment as the law could allow.

The Crown Prosecutor said the accused was a married man, without children, and was industrious.

His Honor said the probation officer’s report could not recommend probation. The sentence was three months’ imprisonment.