The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-09-29

Kamaliikane, the Hawaiian who lies
wounded at the Queen IS Hospital as a
result of hammer blows inflicted on his
head Thursday night, at which time
his friend Kaaa was so badly burned
that he died Friday noon, yesterday
admitted, under cross-examination, that
Kaaa was the one who assaulted him.
Kamaliikane, by his answers and
explanations, convinced the coroner g
jury who heard him yesterday that he
was trying not to tell the truth. When
he came to the end of three hours
steady investigation, he not only
changed his tactics in this regard, but
remodeled his tale so that he even
dropped the theory that a Japanese
had assaulted him and identified Kaaa
as the man who not only had assaulted
him, but set fire to the beds to burn
the house, and, incidentally, burned
himself fatally.
The coroner's jury went to the hos
pital at 1880, and the investigation
was held in the parlor of the old wing,
Kamaliikane being brought there on
stretcher. His head was bandaged.
Deputy County Attorney Milverton,
with Deputy Sheriff Jarrett, conducted
the investigation, the former asking
the questions, with Chief Kalakiela in.
terpreting. Mr.. Milverton adroitly led
Kamaliikane along the route taken by
Kamaliikane in giving out his earlier
statements. He repeated that he and
Kaaa were in the house together that
evening, sitting on the porch, discuss
ing politics, which was the only sub
ject they ever quarreled over.
Then he told how at seven clock
Kaaa went to his bedroom. mauka of
his (Kamaliikane' own) and opposite
the dining-room. Then about 1880 Ka.
/ maliikane went to bed, and had been
there but short time when he
thought he heard someone entering the
house. Next he heard somebody enter
his bedroom and he called out, but re-
ceived no answer. Then he arose, went
| to the bureau and was about to strike
match when the intruder struck him
on the head with some instrument,
| which later he found to be hammer.
Then he became dizzy, but later
grappled with his antagonist, and re-
ceived two more blows on the head He
finally wrenched the hammer away,
went to the front veranda and called
for help. The person he struggled with
made no sound and fled through the
back passageway through which he had
entered. While calling for help Kama
liikane said he saw fire in the house.
He ran in and entered the Waikiki
bedroom, in which was a four-poster
bed. The netting and bedding were on
| fire. He tried to put this fire out, and
then went to his own bedroom Just OPP
posite, also finding the net and bedding
ablaze. He threw the net out of the
window. Then some people came in
| and helped put out the fire.
He was asked why he did not call
for Kaaa. but he said Kaaa was often
sullen and would not answer, so he did
not try to awaken him. Even when
the place was on fire Kamaliikane said
he did not go to Kaaa g room to warn
him of danger.
He said the man who struck him was
undoubtedly a Japanese. Why9 Well,
because n couple of weeks before, a
japanese came to the house and asked
that bill of sixty cents owing his
wife by Kamaliikane children, for
washing, be paid. Kamaliikane said he
knew nothing about it, and the Jap
anese departed. There was no anger
in the conversation. The man who as
saulted him, he said, was short, but
little stout, but he was sure it was
a Japanese. Then Kamaliikane began
to backslide. He did not think the al
legged Japanese assailant on Thursday
night was the same Japanese who had
called for money two weeks before.
With the ice thus broken and the
questions being varied and gone over
again and again, Kamaliikane's story
began to melt away. First he said it
was so dark in the house he could not
see anything. Later he said he saw
a hammer in the man g hand. Then he
remembered that he saw part of his
face. Little by little, with adroit
leading, Kamaliikane said the man was
without a coat. Had no shoes. No
stockings, of course. Dungaree pants
the blue kind. Shirt Yes, that
was a striped one, not like Mr.. Milver-
ton Is, which had stripes straight up
and down, but stripes and cross stripes.
The stranger was not altogether bald,
just partly SO, and it was gray hair,
but not SO gray as his own. The Jap's
moustache was gray and his beard was
little stubbly.
AS Kamaliikane proceeded, the in
vestigators looked wise at one another.
for Kamaliikane was gradually giving
description of Kaaa. The Jap dis
appeared easily, for the Jap who call
ed to get the sixty cents was de-
scribed as small Japanese with black
hair.
Kamaliikane, when he saw where he
had been led, began to explain, but the
more he explained the more he got
tangled up. Then he stated that the