BODIES OF TWO INFANTS FOUND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 225, 17 June 1919, Page 6

BODIES OF TWO INFANTS FOUND

4 NO CLUE TO PAHEXTAGE. ' By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, June 16. J'he Coroner, Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, held two inquiries 10-cluy regarding the deaths irf two male infants. In the first case, that of a male infant found on the hank of the-Hearhcole Kiver on iky 25, the police staled thai every effort had been made to ascertain who was the mother of the child, but without .success. The Coroner, in returning a veVdiet that the body of the infant had been found near tho Hcathcoie Kiver, had it recorded: "The body of the child bore no marks ol violence. It was enclosed in a bag and had but little clothing on it. The child hud lived and had been born healthy. Whoever placed the child in the exposed position did not intend that the child should live."

In regard to the finding of the body of an infant in the Avon Ki\er, near Victoria Street Und»e, yesterday, Dr. Pearson, pathologist at the public hospital, said the body was in an. advanced stage of decomposition. A thick'string was attached to the body around the neck, tho right shoulder, and across the chest, and it was tied under the left shoulder. The body was that of a newborn, full-time male child, which had lived for a, short period, probably a. few hours. The body had been placed in \hc water after death. It had not been drowned. I'he following verdict was returned t "I find there was found in the £.von River, near Victoria Street bridge, the dead body of n male unknown child, which had only lived si few hours after birth.' I further find that the said child had been placed in the river by some person unknown, with a view to concealing it, and that it k-ad been neglected by those responsible for its care with a view to causing its death."