BABY SUFFOCATED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5006, 28 July 1926, Page 2

BABY SUFFOCATED

FATALITY AT TIROHIA. ACCIDENTAL DEATH RETURNED. The death of a Maori child named Reginald Tukuru Wilkinson, aged four months-, at Tirohia yesterday wad the subject of an inquest before Mr W. M. Waill-nutt, coroner, at Tirohia this morning.

From the evidence it was adduced that the child was put to sleep in a cot near his parents’ bed on Monday night. About 4 o’clock yesterday the mother lifted her son into her own bed for the purpose o% feeding him. While the child was takipg his nourishment the mother went to sleep again. On awakening about sjx o’clock she was horrified to find that she was still, holding her child, who was cold and silent. Realising that something was amiss, she wakened her husband, who immediately got his mother from the adjoining room. Everything possible m done to revive the child, but on his arrival from Paeroa Dr. Little could only pronounce life to "be extinct. A verdict was returned that the child had died at Tirohia on Tuesday morning, the cause of death being suffocation, the deceased having been accidentally lain on by his mother. The coroner added tha.t it was a pity young mothers did' not receive more careful instruction about taking babies into their own beds for the ■ purpose of feeding them.