DEATH SENTENCE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20277, 11 April 1934, Page 1

DEATH SENTENCE.

Nemaluk Found Guilty of Murder. WILL SPEND LTFE IN PRISON. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received April 11, 11.30 a m.) DARWIN, April 11. The aboriginal Nemaluk, who for months was hunted through the Northern Territory and who was recently captured, was found guilty of having murdered a Japanese named Ow’ashi at Port Keats in July, 1931, and was sentenced to death. Two other Japanese also were killed at the same time, and for their murder five other natives have already been convicted. Nemaluk’s sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment as it has been the practice never to hang an aborigine in the Northern Territory. Nemaluk, a wild black from the far north, was one of a party w’ho murdered the crew of a Japanese lugger, following on certain incidents in which women of the tribe were involved. The police, upon receipt of the report of the murder, set out to arrest the murderers and eventually came upon them. All were taken prisoner and the journey back was about to begin when Nemaluk showed fight and after a desperate struggle, in which he was badly wounded, escaped into the bush. For months black trackers followed him, but the fugitive eluded them. Then the constable in charge of the pursuit hit upon the notion of placing watchers at the various scattered stations in the territory in the hope that Nemaluk sooner or later would approach some one of them to secure food and tobacco. The plan succeeded and Nemaluk was captured.