WHOLESALE POISONING.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 372, 22 March 1902, Page 2

WHOLESALE POISONING.

EIGHTEEN PEOPLE SUFFER. DEATH OF A LADY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, last night. A poisoning case is reported from Okoroire Hotel. Mrs Court, wifo of Mr John Court, draper, of Auckland, and a member of the City Council, has died at the hotel. Her death is believed to be the result of poisoning. A man named Blake, hotel clerk, is reported to be in a precarious condition, and there are sixteen other persons in the hotel suffering from irritant poisoning. Drs Brewiss and Roberts, from Cambridge, are at the hotel, in charge of the patients. No further details are yet to hand.

DETAILS OF THE AFFAIR. * REMARKABLE FACTS. ' SAD CASE OF MRS COURT. [By Telegraph—fress Association.] Auckland, last night. Details are now to hand regarding the Okoroire poisoning case. There was a good number of visitors in the hotel, and all were well at dinner time on Tuesday night. At about midnight Mrs Court awoke, and complained of violent pains in the stomach. These were accompanied by violent vomiting. She felt extremely cold, and complained of cramp in the legs. The usual remedies were applied. Others in the hotel complained at about the same time, but their cases were not nearly so bad.

Mrs Court felt a little better iu the morning, and it seems that no medical man was sent for till five o’clock in the afternoon, when she took a turn for the worse. There was some delay in getting communication with Dr Roberts, of Cambridge, who arrived at 3.15 a.m. on Thursday. He pronounced Mrs Court’s case as serious, and sent for Dr Brewiss, of Hamilton. By the time Dr Roberts arrived, Mrs Court was unconscious, and she died at half-past one on Thursday afternoon, before Dr Brewiss arrived. There were sixteen other cases in the hotel, but all are out of danger, except Mr Blake, the hotel clerk. Guests, servants, and members of the hotelkeeper’s family have been attacked. The poison has not been traced, but it is believed to have been in the milk. A curious feature is that many of the guests have not shown the slightest symptoms of illness. There are about six in the Court party. All were eating at the same table, and the others are quite well. The doctors have examined the kitchen utensils, and the food in the hotel, but found everything perfectly clean and free from poison. Mrs Court was in splendid health on the Tuesday night, and took a hearty dinner. An inquest was held on the body of Mrs Court, and the jury returned a verdict of death from irritant poisoning, but there was no evidence to show how it was administered.