HURLED TO DEATH.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17469, 1 June 1922, Page 6

HURLED TO DEATH.

TRAGEDY IN AUCKLAND. WOMAN COMMITS MURDER AND SUICIDE. (PRKSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, May 31. A tmgody occurred n few minutes after noon to-day at tho Strand Arcade, a clerk in tho Pacific Cable Board's office, hurling a four-year-old girl over a balustrade on the top floor and then jumping to her death 70 feet below. The child, Betty >N alder, was tho adopted daughter of the woman's mother, who died about a year ago. r P on her mother's death, Miss Nalder took upon herself the duty of looking after the child, to whom she was greatly attached. The child was being treated at the hospital for a broken arm, and Miss -.Nalder took her out for tho day. At the inquest, the following letter, written bv deceased, to tho coroner, and found" in a handbag, was read:— "This is to state that I am so unhappy I cannot live any longer. lam not of temiwrary unsound mind, as the papers ui'o always in the habit of saying. 1 wish my money, namely £IOOO, 'invested with "a firm in Nelson, and approximately Jt'loO in the Auckland Saving;: Bauk, as well as any salary duo to me. to go to the Auckland Hospital. Xone of my relatives have ever cared for me, or taken any interest in me. Therefore they have no right to the money, and 1 do not wish any of them to come near my remains, or take any interest in the alfair whatever. No ono will miss me."

A witness produced a letter written to his daughter, received at noon that day, but too late to avert the tragedy, though the police and the Cable Board were communicated with by telephone immediately. The letter stated that Miss Nalder felt keenly that a friend of heiH had become engaged to another girl, and that sho had nothing to live for. She indicated her intention of committing suicide and taking the child. Betty, with her. The coroner returned a verdict to the effect that the deed was done while deceased was of unsound mind. A young woimn employed in a shop in the Arcade had a narrow escape from injury. She was buttoning a glove on an outstretched hand, and the child struck her hand, falling at her feet beforo she recovered from the shock. The deceased woman's body fell a few feet away.