INQUEST.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1421, 4 September 1878, Page 3

INQUEST.

An inquest was held yesterday afternoon at tho Crown Hotel, Lyttelton, on the body of Clara Eliza Mayze, before J. W. S. Coward, Esq., coroner. Mr R. Wood waa chosen foreman of the jury. The following evidence was taken William Mayze, sworn, said —I am father of deceased. She was three years old. On Wednesday morning, at 1.30 a.m., my wife and I were engaged fitting up a room in tho front of the house. The child was with another on a sofa, in the kitchen. We kept going in and out, and there were two small pieces of candle burning in the kitchen, and a lamp in the room where we were workintr. I heard some crockery rattle whilst we were in tho front room, and my wife said “ the children are up getting something to eat,” A minute after I heard a scream, and ran in and found the child on a chair with her chemise on lire. I put out the flame. The child was burnt under the arm and on the side. I put flour on the burns, and sent for Mr Cathro and his wife, who are neighbours. I kept putting flour on the burns till next morning, when I wont for Dr. Macdonald, who attended the child till it died, at 6.15 a.m. last Sunday, Hugh Macdonald seated—l am a medical man, practising in Lyttelton. I was called to geo deceased at 1.30 p.m. on Thursday last. I found the child suffering from the shock of a severe burn, which extended from the right hip up the right upper side to the axilla, and down tho right arm. Next day the cHld could not take her food, and vomiting came on, caused by the shock to the system. She gradually got weaker, and died on Sunday morning from tho effects of the burn. This concluded the evidence, and the jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental Death.”