STARVED TO DEATH IN WELLINGTON.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1351, 25 September 1886, Page 4

STARVED TO DEATH IN WELLINGTON.

(Corsospondent Lyttelton Times ) “Tired and worn out with anxiety” were the words written on a scrap of paper found upon the body of a labourer named Ward, which was discovered on the beach at Island Bay on Monday afternoon. Coupled with the condition of the body, and the man’s family, it told a heartrending tale of destitution, ending in a sad, lonely death, such as must excite the sympathy everyone in the community. The jury who sat noon the inquest to-day returned a verdict cf “Death from starvation,” and there can be no doubt of the justness of the finding, for the medical testimony proved thst the unhappy man had been days without any food Enquiries I have personally made show that Ward had denied himself food, in order that his wife and eight children might have something with which to keep body and tool together. The postmortem examination showed that there wes an entire absence of internal fat, indcvting that but a very small quan' ity of nonri lime nt had been partaken of for a long time past, while the Intestines contained nothing whatever beyoi d about an ounce of muoor, Dr Hu e en?on stated th it Ihe mat had died of alow starvation. Ward was a man cf rarely sensitive dispes tion, and hla wif •, l ; ke him, possessed that pride which, though a huh virtue under ordinary circumstances, may almrst be said to be a vice in the condition in which the family were for some time before the hutband’s death. For two months bo had been unable to find employmer t or to properly feed his family; yet neither husband nor wife allowed even the nearest neighbors to know of their condition. The man all this time did his best to find work of any kind, and had he allowed hia condition to be known, ha would have received abundance of help. But he suffered on heroically, and finally wandering away and laid down upon the sand anl died. Su*h is the sad story of a death that has caused a thrill of almcs-. horror throughout the cby. The widow told her tale of sorrow between heavy sobs, and when the note which her husband had latt written was handed to her, her grief was uncontrollable Poor soul, her’a was a hard lot,.rendered indescribably pitiful by tbts last grief, which filled ter cup to sverflowing. Why the man wrote those words It is difficult to surmise. He did not write them at home u and there is nothing to lead to the tnppoaitlon that he mediated self-destruction. p., B ibly he felt that he could not hold out much longer, and wished to leave behind a irute record of the trouble he was too sensative to give words to while living, Mrs Ward, 1 learn (though it did not some out in evidence), had been cutting up her bedstead for fuel, being unable to purchase the smallest quantity of firing. The verdict returned is one which is unique in this city, and I belivo in the Colony.