Sad Death of a Woman.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 203, 30 December 1893, Page 2

Sad Death of a Woman.

A MOTHER'S DEVOTION TO HER CHILDREN. An inquest was held at the Wellington Hospital on Thursday afternoon before Mr J. Ashcroft, coroner, and a jury of which Mr W. F. Richards was foreman, concerning the death of Mrs Mary Sullivan, who expired at the institution on Wednesday morning. The husband of the deceased, Daniel Sullivan, who is a ganger on the Government railways, residing at the Upper Hutt, stated that at about 7.20 on the morning of the 20th he was at Ngahauranga, and heard that his wife had been severely burned in a fire at his house. He reached home about an hour later, and at that time she was delirious with pain. Dr Purdy saw her, and on his advice she was sent to the Hospital. His wife told him that she had been up with the children nearly all night, and about 4 o'clock in the morning she lay down on the bed. She lit a candle and put it beside the bed on the floor, so that the light should not interfere with the children sleeping. She went off to sleep, and when she woke up her clothes were on fire. She carried the children out into the yard, and then cried for help. All this time her clothes were burning. The furniture was not insured, and he did not know that there was any insurance on the house. Dr Ewart, Medical Superintendent at the Hospital, stated that when the deceased was brought to the hospital she was suffering from a severe shock, but was conscious. Death was due to congestion of the brain and the internal organs, owing to the burns. Constable McKinnon, of the Upper Hutt, deposed that deceased, whom he had known for eighteen months, was a quiet and sober woman and much respected. On searching the- premises after the fire he found a tin candlestick on a dressing table at the side of the bed. The fire had evidently run along the vallance of the bedstead. The Coroner, in summing up, thought it was a very touching example of a mother's love for her children, even at the cost of her own life. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.— Times. .