FATALITY AT STIBLINC.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2185, 8 May 1908, Page 2

FATALITY AT STIBLINC.

CONTINUATION OF INQUEST. VERDICT OF THE JURY. (Press Association.) . DUNEDIN,. May .7. - The inquest on tlio body of Mrs. Cornish, wife of the licensee of the Stirling Hotel, was contiued on luesday night, after the telegraph office closed. It'was commenced at I p.m. on Tuesday, and concluded at 3.40 yesterday morning. The additional evidence was as Lilley Knox, aged 16, employed as housemaid at the Stirling Hotel tor five months, last saw deceased alive at 7 p.m. on Thursday m the passage. She rose at 5.45 a.m. on Jcriday, but saw nothing of Mr. or Mrs. Cornish till between 2.30 and 3 p.m., when she saw the former in the bathroom getting washed. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Cornish had had dinner that dav. She had never known Mr. and Mrs. Cornish to quarrel. They used to get on pretty well. Mr. Cornish always seemed sober, but deceased seemed always under the influence of liquor. , , William Taylor, barman, employed for seven months at the hotel, sail that during that time Mrs. Cornish had seldom been sober in the evening, and was often drunk in the morning as well. On tho afternoon of Thursday last deceased was very drunk. Witness last saw her on that day about 10 p.m. _ T , , , , To the inspector: He had killed a pig lie believed on the Wednesday preceding Mrs. Cornish’s death. Air. Cornish sat on the pig, holding its fore leg, while witness killed it. ike blood spouted out, and Mr. Cornish got most of it. Airs. Cornish wm present during the process. “b® seemed middling drunk, and fell on entering the doorway. Witness was unaware that No. A room had been occupied on Thursday night. Evidence’was also given by Constable Marshall and Detective Hunt. Inspector O’Brien referred to the statement by Cornish that there was a strange man in the house on Thursday night, and said that he did hot propose to -ask for an adjournment to enable the police to get this man, if there was a man,'but would leave it entirely to the coroner and jury. The jury retired at 27 minutes to 3 a.m., and returned at a quarter to 4 with the following verdict: “We find that deceased came to her death by a fall, and in our opinion the fall would not have proved fatal had it not been for the congested state of her brain, brought on by excessive drinking.” The foreman added that they did not say how or where the woman fell, but she was in a state on the night in question to fall anywhere. They had examined the door of the bedroom, and had come to the conclusion that it was just as likely as not that death .resulted either from a. fall against the door or against the architrave of the door. . - (Mrs Cornish was said to have been found , dead in the passage of the hotel by her husband. Evidence was giyen .by Air. Cornish on Wednesday and ..was' of a somewhat contradictory, nature, and the examination of the witness by the police was a lengthy one.] ■