THE LAW TO KILL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 519, 30 July 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

THE LAW TO KILL.

ABORIGINAL CONDEMNED. WHITE MAN’S JUSTICE. NATIVE FEARED THE ROPE. The red-robed judge, the bewigged barristers meant nothing to him. His IaAV was the primitive one Avhieh actuates a bush native. The “ white ’pfella ” had not fulfilled hjs contract. They had fought, The “ Avliite ’pfella ” had been killed. In the far outback of West Australia “ Billy ” NarraAvanna was known as the only native who Avore “ white pfella’s ” boots. Yet when Narrawanna sat huddled up in tlie Perth Criminal Court, shivering in mortal fear of the rope, lie was barefooted. Before him, and for liis benefit, Avas arraigned the pomp and circumstance of the white man’s justice; the red-robed judge, the jury, the bewigged counsel, the uniformed police, the iron-barred dock. Pitiful Picture. And through it all sat “ Billy ” Narrawauua, a pitiful picture; thick matted hair that had never known a comb, a rough unkempt beard, shabby clothes. His eyes never left liis cold-looking bare feet. Tlie -evidence told a grim tale of tlie lonely outback, of an old * prospector's death, Narrawanna not denying he had killed him. “ Tom Walls, he make ’em roAv ” NarraAvanna said in his statement to the police, which he appears to have made with all the childlike frankness of the native. “He say, *Go away, go away.’ He hit ’em me on side of face. Me fall cloAvn. Then I get up, an’ I hit ’em Tom Walls over head with waddy. Me hit ’em plenty time oA*er head Avith Avaddy, and he fall down on ground. Then me Jiit ’em two, three times Avitli axe. He dead then.” Narrawanna threw the body down a shaft, Avhere it was found by the police. The prospector, he claimed, had “ borrowed ” his woman—a gin with the noA*el name of “ Modern ” —and lpid promised to pay him for her in food and tobacco. Two days later Narrawanna went to Walls’ camp to retrurve his “ gin ” and receive liis “ pay.” Walls refused to give him tlie tobacco promised, and was killed. Tragic Story. It was a tragic story, made all the more tragic by the obvious misery and fear of the man who Avas tolling it. Narrawanna could speak little English. Another aboriginal was called in to interpret for hfm, and through him, in a A*oice little more than a husky Avhisper, the aboriginal described the tragedy.

Tolling of how lie did the fearful battering Avith the Avaddy and the hacking Avitli the axe did not seem to move him.

For all the interest he took in the return of the jury and the recording of the death sentence, lie might ha\*e been only some stray black looking casually in at the And yet, though the Court xr)ay liaA r o been a mystery to him, NarraAvanna sat in deadly fear of Avhat might happen to him afterAvards. He knew that much. Evidently someone liad told him about the fate of a murderer. In Kalgoorlie lie made an attempt to cheat the rope by slashing liis throat. Again, at Fremantle, while lie was Availing trial, he picked up a piece of jagged glass in the exercise yard, and dragged it across his wounded throat. However, no lull-ldooded aboriginal has been hanged in West Australia for the last 30 years, and NarraAvanna is certain to he reprieved from the death sentence recorded against him, and given 10 years’ penal servitude instead. Ho lias got “ white man’s justice ” for taking tribal justice—the only one he