TRAGEDY AT WAIMEA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 10 June 1924, Page 6

TRAGEDY AT WAIMEA.

MAORI MURDER AND SUICIDE.

By Telegraph—Press Association. [WHANGAREI, Julie 9. A murder .at Waimea, a native settlement near Rawene, Hokianga, occurred about 2 o’clock on Saturday morning. A IVJuori named Ruki Pone, battered his wife’s skull with a stone,, the victim expiring at noon. The first intimation was given to the settlement by the .children of ■ the victim excitedly crying, “Father is murdering mother! Come quick 1 The Natives found the woman in the whare, in a dying condition. There was a blood-stained stone alongside. Meantime Pene had disappeared. A hue and cry was raised, and eventually the fugitive was located at Rawene, where Pene had climbed a tree, with a view to hiding. Finding this futile, he leaped from the tree, a distance of 30 feet, into a shallow creek, sustaining concussion and unconsciousness. He was conveyed by train to Whangarei, and expired cn route. At Whakapara, a post, mortem icvealed a fracture of the-base of the skull. Jealousy is supposed to be-the motive of the' crime. The woman was aged about 50.