DROWNED IN HARBOUR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20017, 16 August 1939, Page 6

DROWNED IN HARBOUR

RACING OFFICIAL’S DEATH

COMMENT BY CORONER (Pur Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The inquest on the death of Hartley Roy Sellers, aged 55 years, former secretary of the New Zealand Racing Conference was held today. After hearing evidence, the coroner Mr. E. Gilbertson said: “Evidently he was very worried, and we have his friend’s evidence that he was In financial difficulty and that would lead one to the suspicion that there u'as a cause for suicide. But there is no direct evidence of that and, in the light of the lack of substantial evidence of that fact, I shall bring in an open verdict that he was found drowned in the Wellington Harbour on August 2, there being no evidence to show how the body came to be in the water.”

The principal evidence was that of Herbert Richard Churton Wild, solicitor, Wellington, who said that the deceased was well known to him. He last saw him alive at 8.30 a.m. on July 3. As he left his home, he informed witness that he was going to meet a man at the Carlton Hotel. Although general inquiries had been made for him, lie had nbt been seen alive since he left the Carlton Hotel at 9.50 a.m. on July 3.

For some time past, Sellers had been worried about private financial matters and, during his last weekend lie reached a stage of acute worry, which caused his friends and witness, himself, great concern. The only other witnesses were Dr. P. D. Lynch, pathologist and two constables, who recovered the body and some clothing from the foreshore of the harbour.