ARRIVAL OF MR MACKAY, AND ESCAPE OF THE MURDERER RUKA.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 512, 22 January 1869, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF MR MACKAY, AND ESCAPE OF THE MURDERER RUKA.

Mr Mackn'y arrived yesterday in ■ the cutter"■;E'riiiha from Tailpof(near i the -Sandspit Island), where he had held a meeting of the ira«ives of that settlement and of the island of Wai-' heke.< It will lie ' remembered that Mr -Mackay's object' in paying,that locality a visit 'was to take means for the arrest of Rukarthe man who killed an old woman named Atereta (Adelaide), under the belief that she had bewitched his sister,Pera (i'ella) v?ho had died, and who, on her death-bed, had said,that she believed her death was caused by the enchantments of Aterera. TheM.aoris sum- ■: ■mohed Atereta to attend a runanga, to .answer .the charge of .wichcraft, but Ruka could not;restrain himself, ■ and split'..her skull, with his. toma-.-hawk while she was on her. way. to the Assembly; immediately, after the murder,"-the na-iv.es held a runanga to consider,.what was to 1.-c done with, the man l!nka, as they knew that European law could not overlook ; his. crime.. ft was' a greed •.that he should-be-delivered up by them to Mr- Mackay at Auckland, and that several of-them would set out next day, taking the prisoner, liuka,- however, wiio heard their determination, did not; care to' trust himself ro trial by jury, lie got up during tho nightf slipped nw-.iy from the other natives—who apparently | had taken no. troubleto keep guard —-got a skiff and paddled up the I

Firth of^the,- Thames to *the,Pink6; on arriving at Waih^ki; cent several native constables af*"<?r„, the 'culprit, "but* before' they got'far up ,th,e river '.they* found that he ban bad too good.a start, and tbat pursuit was hopeless. Ruka is now at Maungatnutavi,- and safe in the meantime from any one who pursues him in the name of British law.— N.Z. Herald, Jan. 20.