SHOOTING DOWN MAORI MURDERERS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 484, 30 March 1869, Page 2

SHOOTING DOWN MAORI MURDERERS.

The first instance of a European taking the law into his own hands, and shooting down two well-known murderers without sentence passed upon them hy jury and judge, has just occurred in Poverty Bay. The Turangaaui correspondent of the Hawke's Bay Herald, writing on March 7th, reports that Keke (a Chatham Island prisoner, but who refused to join Te Kooti in his murderous work), went into the bush to look for fugitives, when he found a number of Te Kooti's people, who had been wandering in the bush since the fall of Ngatipa ; among them were To Iho Ariki, Nikora, and Peka, who assisted in the Poverty Bay massacres. " Keke sent a note to Mr Wyllie, Government interpreter. It announced that To Iho Ariki, Nikora, and Peka were amongst Keke's prisoners. As Ariki had assisted to murder Mr Wyllie's son; and Nikora, after murdering poor old Mr Newnham, his wife, and their adopted child, had cut off Mr Newnham's head and split it in two pieces; and as, moreover, Peka was one of three guides, and present to assist in all murders: Mr Wyllie says that, irrespective of his feelings as a father fond of his son, he felt such villains ought not to get off scot free, like Karepa. Accordingly, he waited upon Mr Westrup first, and Captain Tuke afterwards, to whom he related the antecedents of Messrs Ariki and Co. It appears neither of the officers could he induced to assume the responsibility of ordering the execution of three murderers without trial, and in the absence of the R. M. from Poverty Bay; and Mr Wyllie retired from both interviews with the convictiou, shared in by almost anyone, that, like Karepa and others, the desperate villains would escape unless summary measures were used to prevent it. On Friday night, at 11 o'clock, Messrs Wyllie, Benson, Suche (a cousin of Mokeua), and Wi Brown, a half-caste, whose brother Pukua was brutally murdered and mangled by Te Iho Ariki, arrived at Keke's camp, near Patutahi. The prisoners were found sleeping round the expiring embers of their fire. Walking into the midst of the group, Mr Wyllie said, " Nikora, I know you are here; get up and die." No response, though the demand was oft repeated. Mr Wyllie next struct

a light to discover the murderers. Nikora then got up, and, moving past ]VIr "Wyllie, made for a low fence. He was fired at by the European party, but nevertheless scrambled over and was seen reeling into the scrub. It was too dark to trace him then, but he was pursued by Panapa, a chief of high standing, who has since returned, in grief that Nikora cannot be found, although he was tracked by his blood for a long distance through the dense manuka scrub. He must have been riddled with bullets by five men at five yards distance—good marksmen too. After Nikora's departure, Mr Wyllie and friends returned to the camp, and then Henri Te Iho Ariki, the murderer of his son, was in his turn ordered to rise by Mr Wyllie. He complied at once, and nearly touching the carbine of Mr Benson, was shot through the breast by that gentleman —not to expire at once. It is said he confessed his crimes before he was finally despatched by Mr. Wyllie and the others, which was done by shooting the wretch through the train. Peka, the other scoundrel, was also to have been executed, but fate willed it otherwise. Three hours previously he had fled to Murewai, and thus escaped."