Niueans Appeal

Against Conviction for Murder Evidence Given by M. G. Check

A FULL Court sitting in Auck land, New Zealand, on October! 29. reserved its decision on the appeals of three Niueans againsfl their conviction for the murder of the Resident Commissioner, Mr' C. H. W. Larsen, on August 16.

The three accused, Folitolu, 25t Latoatama, 21, and Tamaeli, 18£ were brought to Auckland from Niue on the Maui Pomara on Oc tober 10.

The grounds for the appeal were: ® That the Judge’s summing-up on direction to the assessor at the trial was not made in open Court, and there was. no possibility of checking it in law; sucM procedure was contrary to accepted pro-< cedure in NZ. • That there was no adequate proolt of the cause of death, as no internal post-mortem examination had been madea • That statements made by the appel-I lants were inadmissible and should btc rejected on the basis that the appellant;] had been interrogated when making theme • That there was provocation tha\£ should be sufficient to reduce the decision! to one of manslaughter. • That there was not sufficient proo;c of “malice aforethought.”

During the appeal evidence wait taken from Mr. M. G. Check, wh« was an LMS missionary on Niui from 1949 until January, 1953. HI said that he had learned to speah the language, knew Latoatama ami Tamaeli and had seen Mr. Larseie on official business frequently.

The mentality of the Niueans, hr said, could not be compared with) that of Europeans because theii: abilities lay in different directions!

Their attitute to right and wronr was also different. They were unn predictable and emotionally litoi children —the serious part of thd appellants’ statements was theiie complaint that there had bee:s sustained and continuous ill-treatfj ment from Mr. Larsen. It seemes to him from the statement madb by one of them that he was “so fujj of hate that he did not want tt eat” on the night of August 16, thasj they were obsessed with their griew: ances, real or imaginary. Unless Niuean was ill or brooding deeplfc he was always ready to eat.

It was a fact, he said, that them had been a petition to have ML Larsen removed from the Island. .

Mr. E. H. Pleasants, who appearee for Folitolu and Latoatama, saih that statements made by the thr©-; appellants should be careful!! scrutinised. The amount of detas. in the statements was quite corn trary to the idea of a native mafefi ing a voluntary statement.

Mr. S. C. Ennor, who appeared for ramaeli, said that his statement yas inadmissible and that the vidence against him was insufficient o justify his conviction on a cap tal charge. It had been Tamaeli’s nten t i o n merely to beat the [eceased.

He said that in the Island’s anguage “keli” could mean kill, cat, scold or dig. The word mate” similarly was open to mis ranslation because, as well as be ig a term for death, it could also lean illness due to accident or war are.

Li’R. H. R. C. WILD, who appeared rl for the Crown, said that in quiries made at the Depart lent of Island Territories showed lat the only record of a petition ) remove Mr. Larsen was a tele ram received from one of the sland councillors who afterwards lid that it had been sent through

misunderstanding.

He said acquittal of the accused as not justified. Referring to lack ■ a post-mortem he said that the ddence of the doctor justified the ourt’s concluding that Mr. Larsen’s ounds caused his death.

There was no evidence that the ;cused were induced to make state ,ents—they had asked for an in rpreter, saying they wished to tell le truth.

On the point of provocation, he ibmitted that evidence did not in cate any ill-treatment of the icused by Mr. Larsen. They had )t seen him ill-treat prisoners. He id thrown a stick which bounced f the ground and hit Tamaeli.

There was no evidence that the cused were in a state of passion the time of the murder. They id got one bushknife from the ■ol and had then walked a mile Mr. Larsen’s house where they ok the other two knives from a ed. There was evidence of a evious intention of Latoatama and ilitolu to “chop off” Mr. Larsen’s ad. Tamaeli was either an abettor a party to a common purpose.

' was in the room when Mr. rsen was attacked, he had a hal weapon in his hand and was ady to aid or acquiesce.

Mr. A. F. S. Ohman, Chief Vet mary Officer, returned to Fiji >m furlough in England in Oc ber. While overseas he visited terinary research and animal sbandry stations in the United ngdom and Europe, and attended b 15th International Veterinary nference in Stockholm last gust. Some 1,300 delegates from parts of the world attended— ) sitting down to the banquet DVided. At Pirbright, England, ’• Ohman, visited the foot-and iuth disease research laboratories ich are under the control of Dr.

Uoway, a world authority. With idem air travel this disease is /ays a danger to Fiji. Visits were o made to research centres in Jtland and London.