MAORI'S ESCAPADE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19879, 4 March 1939, Page 16

MAORI'S ESCAPADE

ASSAULT AND BURGLARY SIX MONTHS' GAOL (Par Press Association.) ROTORUA, last night. The story of an assault in Te Wairoa, nine miles from Rotorua, in the early hours of. the morning of February 27, and a subsequent drive over a hilly road at 50 to 70 miles an hour by the man responsible, using a converted car which he capsized three times after striking a bank oh the road, was told in the Magistrate's Court, Rotorua, when Ha'pi Atutahi, aged 26, a native, appeared before Messrs. 11. Johnson and C. M. Williamson, J.P.'s, charged with breaking and entering the premises of Reginald Smith, Te Wairoa, with assaulting Reginald Smith, with converting to his own use two motor cars, and with the theft of six gallons of benzine in Ohaupo. The proprietor of the Te Wairoa tearooms, Reginald Smith, said that during the early hours of the morning of February 27 he was aroused by the sound of someone moving about the house. On entering the sitting-room oft' the verandah he had an electric torch shone in his face and was struck a heavy blow on the mouth. Nothing had been stolen from the house, but in the morning he found that an attempt had been made to disconnect his telephone. The police produced statements in which Atutahi admitted that after being discharged from gaol in Auckland in January he converted a car and drove it through to Rotorua, where he abandoned it. On the way he' stole six gallons of benzine in Ohaupo. On the night of February 27 he went to Te Wairoa with the object of breaking into the tearooms and securing money. He admitted being interrupted by Smith, and said lie "pushed" him in order to escape. Constables Kemp and Donnelly said that about a mile past the turn-off to Te Wairoa they found a car lying overturned on a side road. A native sprang up and ran away, but was pursued and caught.

The bench, in remanding Atutahi to Auckland for sentence on the two major charges of assault and breaking and entering, sentenced him to six months' imprisonment on each of two charges of car conversion. On the charge of the theft of the benzine the accused was sen*enc£d to a further month's imprisonment. '