MAORI WOMAN MURDERED
ATROCIOUS CRIME AT RAWENE HUSBAND COMMITS SUICIDE (Per Press Association.) WHANGAREI, June 9. An atrocious murder at the Waimea Native settlement, near Rawene, Hokianga, occurred about 2 o’clock ou Saturday morning, a Maori named Ruki Pene battering 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.” The natives found the woman in the whare in a dying condition. There was a blood-stained stone alongside of her. Meantime Pene had disappeared. A hue and cry was raised. He was eventually located at Rawene, where Pene had climbed a tree with a view to hiding.
Finding this was futile, he leaped from the tree at a distance of thirty feet into a shallow ereek, occasioning concussion and unconsciousness. He was conveyed by train to Whangarei, but expired en route at Whakapara.
A post-mortem examination revealed a fracture at the base of the skull.
Jealousy is supposed to have been the motive of the crime. The woman was aged about fifty.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19240610.2.51
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19033, 10 June 1924, Page 5
Word Count
185MAORI WOMAN MURDERED Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19033, 10 June 1924, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in