DEATH OF DOMESTIC

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20123, 18 December 1939, Page 4

DEATH OF DOMESTIC

WHATATUTU FATALITY SELF-INFLICTED WOUND DEPRESSED CONDITION (Special to the Horald.) TE KARAKA, this day. A verdict that Keita Stevens, aged 13, a Maori domestic, died at the Dome station, Whatatutu, on the afternoon of December 15 as a result o: a self inflicted bullet wound and tl’.at the accidctv; occurred while she was temporarily of unsound mind was returned yesterday at an inquest into her death. The nquest was conducted by Constable W. Greggan m Whatatutu, the acting-coroner, Mr. J. G. Appleton, J.P., being on the bench, and the jury being G. W. Cla*k, foreman, S. Tait, G. Gregory, and M. Bradford. The deceased'? father, Hata Stevens said he had identified the body as fl at of bis daughter. A 15-year-old cousin of the deceased, John Stevens, said that he had seen the girl in a whare on the station about a quarter of an hour before she met her death. She l ad been lying on a bed in the whare and told him that she thought that she was going mad. The deceased had asked him to notice how her fingers were trembling. She had questioned the witness as to what he would do if she were to shoot herself and he told her not to be so foolish. After tint the witness left the whare to attend to the washing up of the milk buckets. Returning to the whare later, he heard a suspicious noise and discovered the body. The manager of the Dome station. .Tames All wood, said he had been advised of the fatality at about 5.15 p.m. on Friday by the previous witness. He had gone to the whare and found the deceased lying dead on a bed with t .22 calibre rifle alongside hex body.

The wife of the previous witness, Mrs. Margaret Allwood, said the girl had been in her employ as a domestic for two years, and gave evidence as to her mental condition prior to ti.e tragedy. Constable Greggan, To Karaka, said a note, which he read. had been found alongside the body. This had been left by the girl to explain the position to her employers and relatives.