ATTACK WITH AXE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21155, 30 September 1938, Page 10

ATTACK WITH AXE

MAORIS INJURED KAIKOHE, September 26. An assault with an axe, in ccnsequence of which two people are In hospital. is alleged to have occurred at Taheke, a small settlement 12 miles from Kaikohe, on Saturday. A party, consisting of Mrs Janie Nelson, widow of Mr E. S. Nelson, who was murdered at Waihou two years ago, Mrs Rawiri and Mr Harold Joseph, all Maoris, visited Kaikohe on Friday night to attend a basket social held to raise funds for the Ngapuhi centennial canoe. They left the social at a late hour and arrived at Mrs Rawiri’s home, where Mrs Nelson also lived, at about 3.30 a.m. Mrs Rawiri’s husband, Noka Rawiri, also visited the dance, but arrived home before his wife. After arriving at Taheke the party was sitting In a car conversing when, it Is alleged, Mrs Rawiri and Mr Joseph were attacked with an axe. Mrs Rawiri suffered a severe shoulder injury, the blade cutting right through the arm joint, and Mr Joseph was gashed on the chin and had his jaw broken. They were taken to the Rawene Hospital. Their condition is not serious. Mrs Nelson was not Injured. Constables E. J. Gibbs and J. Frain, in charge of the Rawene police station, arrested Noka Rawiri, and he appeared before Messrs F. C. Hargrave and T. P. Lane, JJP.’s, on a charge of assaulting Harold Joseph so as to cause actual bodily harm. On the application of the police, Rawiri was remanded to appear on Friday, Bail was refused.