PATHETIC CASE AT DUNEDIN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1591, 7 November 1912, Page 6

PATHETIC CASE AT DUNEDIN.

i : (By Telegrapb—Press Assoqiation.) ;, Dunedin, November 6. ■^This'afternoon an incruest -was held into the surrounding.-.the death i of Aiinio Read, who hod masqueraded for the past nine, months as a,,man,.and her newly-born-infant. . Concerning the death of the .child, Dr. I Gordon MacDonald.xleposed that it was:a fully-developed female. He. had found o slight mark of : constriction, round the neck, such 'as -might: be -caused by ; the I-umbilical cord, but there were no. other | marks to .indicate the' 'cause of death. From the appearance of the lungs, the child had been born alive, and. all the organs-were normal. The umbilical cord had been severed iaad tied, .and the conclusion which iwitness came to was 'that the child had been born alive and had died from neglect.. .'. , ", Catherine Pledger,. who had let the room to. Miss Read, gave evidence that she had never had any reason to suppose that deceased was other'than a man named Thomas'Parkes. On : Monday evening deceased ifeid that, she was not feeling very well,'and would go to bed, and might not turn out in the morning. Witness replied that in that case she would bring her a ,- cup of tea. About, 1 a-m. 'witness heard a moan, and her husband got up„ and knocked at deceased's door, which, was locked, but received no answer. If witness had known that "Thomas Parkes' was a woman she would have got up herself. At 5 a.m. tho door was again tried, and no answer returned to questions Eventually a lodger named Nowland got into the room by meaiis of a ladder. -■: : The coroner:- Having heard moaning .'.ybu.-'got your; husband to get up and knock at the door, and you got no answer. Did it not strike you that thew was something wrong then? •'/Witness: No;-it did not. I thought thai 'it .'was :a<gentleman, and that-he ha< eaten something and got stomachache oi something like that. If I had known thai 'it was a-woman it would have been different.* '.: ■.' ■ :'■■;■

" Sub-Inspector ..Fonby: Did "Tliomo; •Parkes" sleep at your house every nightl Witness: With the exception of Satur day nights. I used to laugh, ap.d say thai •he went.to his town hoiise. '.' Sub-Inspector Fouhy: Do you knon where that was?. Witness: I think ,it wis in Mansi Street. ■•.,.',' John Newland, painter, said that, whet ho entered the room,, he found "Parkes' practically nude lying on the floor. Lift ingian overcoat, he found a newly-Bon child'underneath it, and, to all appear ance, dead. The mother . was ther mumbling, but was practically uncon scious. The coroner said that there could onlj bo ono conclusion, namely, that the chile had been born alive, and had died owini to neglect. . ■ ' At the iriquest on the mother, Sub-In spector ]Touhy made a statement that prior to : deceased's arrival in New Zea land, she had written from Ararat,. Vic toria, to a'man named Thomas Axthm Eussell, motor garage proprietor, in In vercargill, claiming relationship witl him, herself "Thomas Bus .sell." At her request Mr. Russell arrangei a passage for her, and she arrived n Invercargill on January 22, 1912, in mali attire. She told Mr. Russell that she W& not a boy, nor was she a girl. Russcl got her away from Invercargill after j few days. ' Among her belongings wor letters signed "Father Peter," which hai really been sent her from Invercargill b; Eussell. ' Dr. Fleming stated that he had fount the woman lying on the floor in a coma toso condition, and a newly-born chili : dead beside.her. He nt once attributei ,: the' woman's serious condition to puer p'eral eclampsia, which opinion was, j late ; on, confirmed. The patient was_ removci to the hospital, but never rallied, am died at 3 p.m. There were no suspicion circumstances, and deceased would pre itmbiy not have survived her . cohfinomen no matter what treatment she had re ceived, as she" had been « sufferer befor , from.. Brighfs; disease, which left a ten dency. ; ,t<j puerperal. ■ eclampsia at child birth, Sergeant Eceles also gave evidence, ' The coroner said that he could only fin I in 'accordance with' 'Dr. Fleming's evi I dunce, viz., Ihat doalh was due. to pucr . ixM-.il culanißSiu durinir childbirth*