CORONER’S INQUEST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 568, 7 March 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

CORONER’S INQUEST.

— o — inquest w;is held before C Hiitefoord, Esq., Coroner, on Saturday, the j st,h ult, at Kelly’s Hotel, at, the Twelve-mile Landing, on the body of a young woman named Ellen Sweeney, who died on the previous dav. The evidence laid bare an evil condition of social affairs, and the frightful disclosures made, exhibited the gross immorality sometimes found existing on the gold fields in its worst light. The girl formerly kept a grog shanty at No Town, where she was fined for selling spirits without being licensed, and she then gave up busi ness. Latterly she lived with a miner at Eoug'i and Tumble Crock. According to his evidence, she went from the hut to Sunnybank to procure liquor, and she did not return fur sonce days; in fact she did not return at all. She evidently got possession of a quantity of liquor by some means, although how shedid so did not transpire She at length found her way into the hut of another miner, who, when he returned from work, found her lying upon his bed, with « bottle paitly full of brandy alongside her Of course the first thing he did was to drink the brandy, and also, of course, more had to be ‘•btained. This went on until the unfortunate, girl got into such a state that she could take no more spirits, when she began drinking water inimmoderatequantities. Theevidence on this point was curious. A witness stated that the deceased drank between , twenty and thirty “ billieafuF of cold

water in one day, and each of these billies*would hold about half a gallon. She was during the time retching and vomiting violently. At length two local medical practitoners were called in, and through this the police became aware of the case. Steps were taken, as soon as it was deemed advisable to move the poor creature, to forward her to Greymouth, bnt she died in the dray iu which she was being conveyed before the fwt-lve-mile Lauding was reached. There was something rnmoredabout thedeceased “knocking about” a mining camp in the neighborhood of Black Jack’s Creek, a day or two bef ire she died, but the full particulars are not tit for publication. Dr. Phillips made a jyost mortem examination of the bod e, and found the viscera rent and torn in all directions from the effects of the retching from which the deceased suffered bef <re she died. “There was not a trace of solid food in the stomach, but there was a smell of alcohol,” The cause of death was exhaus'ion and prostration from the effects of alcoholic poisoning, and con sequent inflammation. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. The remains were interred in the presence of a few strangers immediately after the inquest was over, at the Twelve-mile. The deceased was a native of Lancashire, England, and about twenty-four years of age. Notwithstanding tiie suffering that must have preceded such a death, the features of the deceased bore some traces of a handsomeness which it is said she possessed iuher life time.