GROSS INHUMANITY.

Evening Star, Issue 3464, 30 March 1874, Page 3

GROSS INHUMANITY.

A little boy, eight years of age, a son of Mr Alexander Henderson, of the schooner Canterbury, was drowned, in Wellington Harbor on March 23. Deceased was playing on the end of Hunter’s wharf with a dog, and the dog threw him in. At the inquest, a Mrs MTntosh thus deposed to what occurred after she was called t® the boy’s assistance,—He was lying in the water with his eyes open. I asked to have the child taken out of the water, and the men who were there said “.No.” They seemed afraid to take the child out. Ido not know why, but they said the police would interfere, i had the boy to ken out of the water and placed on the wharf, and some man cut his clothes off. I first asked Mr Wakeford to take him up, but he would not. Mr Crawford stood there and looked, and thought it would be all right. There were twenty or thirty people there. I jumped down higher than the door. 1 asked them to take the child out of the water, and they hesitated on account of the police. They said the police would interfere if they touched the child. I asked several. X kept crying to them to take the child out of the water. I asked Mr Crawford, and he said he thought I might venture to take the child out of the water. He said he thought I might have it taken out of the water. He stood there looking at me. None helped until I called Lmghard down off the bank. They did not take any active measures to have the child removed, George Wakeford, a laborer was examined at considerable length Th<? following are the more important portions of his evidence: \ to t*ke the child out of the water, and sixty or seventy people screamed out, You must not touch it j the police must take it out of the water.” 1 made two or three attempts. 1 do not believe’ for a minute that the child was dead when I got down there. He had not been in the water more, than ten minutes. I. daresay there were upwards of one hundred people there, but there were so many hulloaing out that they did not know what to do for the best. When I lifted the child on wharf it was not to say really dead.. The child was perfeetly warin, au.d so it was when we cot the blanket for it. ■ Mr Anderson : Were they grown ub ner« sons or bays ? ■ P v Witness : Grown up persons* not children. To the Coroner : 1 had my hands nearly on the child when they made a regular yelpmg opt, You must not touch the child unless the police are here.” X said, “Why can’t we take it out.” J

' The Coroner : It would have been better to have taken the child cut without stopping to argue the point. Witness'} Yes; but a man does not like to get himself into trouble. There are very curious laws in Wellington, and the best thing is to keep on the careful side of the hedge. The people said I must not touch a dead body unless the police were there. I do not think the child was really dead when 1 jumped off the breastwork. No one would get off the breastwork at all. They all stood looking ai; the little infant in the water. Ihe child was in the water ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, fully that, before I got Mr Crawford’s consent, ° The Coroner ? It appears to you now a very monstrous and extraordinary thing not to have taken up the child as soon as it was discovered.

Witness ; I suppose I was confused. It certainly does appear so. There were twenty people present, and not one offered to get off the breastwork, 6

Sergeant Monaghan ; What is your reason for thinking that the child was alive when you saw it in the water ? Witness ; Its lips moved. It was warm when I lifted it up, and when the policeman took it away in the cart it was quite warm, I can assure you. , T i° jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and added the following rider : “The jurors wish to express the strongest censure upon those present for the inhumanity and ignorance displayed in not at once removing the body of the deceased when first discovered.”