MAORIS LIABLE TO “SEE DARK”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 5 August 1931, Page 7

MAORIS LIABLE TO “SEE DARK”

MORE EVIDENCE HEARD IN CHARGE OF MURDER. (Continued from Page 5.) Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, August 5. The hearing of evidence in the defence of George Rameka, who is on trial on a charge of murdering Mrs Gwendoline Johnson, was continued to-day. Manene Brown, a Maori ganger, said that deceased had come to his lodgings with Rameka and he often went to her flat. They seemed to behave “ like man and wife.” lie saw Rameka give her £2'!, his winnings at the races. The ambulance driver who took Rameka to the hospital, said his symptoms were similar to the after-effects of an epileptic fit. George Graham, an authority on the Maori race, said that they were very jealous of their racial pedigree. A Maori who was called a “ nigger” would receive a mental shock and would “ see dark,” equivalent to the European “ seeing red.” Accused, Rameka, then gave evidence through an interpreter. He said that he had three sisters and thirteen brothers, but only he and one sister were now alive. A first cousin of his had killed her baby, another cousin at Waitara had killed her adopted child. He went to the war at the age of fifteen and was there over two years. “ Suffered from Depression.”

Rameka said that at the war he was digging trenches and also looking after wire entanglements in No Man’s Land. He was gassed at Messines, and when he returned to New Zealand he received hospital treatment for war wounds. Sometimes he suffered from depression, which seemed to darken his outlook. He knew deceased as Miss Driscoll. She told him that she was a well-to-do woman from England, that she came from Wellington and was engaged while there. The first night he met her she told him that Mrs Keesing, her landlady, was her aunt. After he and she had been together awhile he loved her, and she responded. When he gave her £24 it was arranged that the fact should not be made known to her family. She told him that she was waiting for money from her family’s estate in Wellington, and would repay him in three months. Accused said that he used to visit Mrs Johnston every night when she was sick, and sometimes he stayed until one o’clock. He had often been alone with her for periods of up to two hours. lie went to the Ellerslie races and the Epsom trots with Mrs Johnston and her daughter as her tana (unmarried husband). Beginning of Trouble. The beginning of the trouble between them was at the trots, when she asked him to get a taxi. He told her that he was “ broke She said that all the lovers she had had anything to do with had always taken her home in comfort. The' next day, in a fit of depression. he bought poison, contemplating suicide. That night she told him she did not want him any more, and he asked why. She said it was because he showed her up at the trots. He was “ full of jealousy and temper ”, and threatened suicide. She said she did not care, and anyway he would oot be game. Then the thought of his child came to him, and he decided to defei *he act. “ You Black Nigger.” Acused said that next morning he bought a knife because he thought the poison would not be enough to take his life. He intended to take poison in Mrs Johnston’s presence to prove that he was game enough to commit suicide. He drank some poison before he opened the door of her room. Ilis throat and stomach were burning. Then, speaking in good English, the acused said: ‘‘She looked at me and said to me, ‘What do you want here you black nigger?’ At that instant I didn’t know what I was doing. I just simply went off my head. That is all.” The Court adjourned for lunch. (Proceeding.)