KAEAEA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 422, 13 December 1911, Page 6

KAEAEA.

La3t Sunday the only child of Mr and Mrs A. Riddle, of Waitawhena Valley was fatally poisoned through eatng matches. The parents started out with the child for Mangaroa to have it attended to medically, but the child expired before they had gone very far and they returned. Owing to the long delay in getting the promised telephone through from Kaeaea to Mangaroa, they could not get the doctor through. Much sympathy is felt for the unfortunate parents in thus losing their only child under such circumstances.

An inquest touching the death was held at Dr Latchmore's residence, Ohura, on yesterday week, before the acting-coroner (Mr W. K. Williams, J.P.) and the following jury :—Messrs E. J. Thompson (foreman), G. J. Haggie, W. J. Simpson. A. Sayers, G. Simpson, H. J. Dougherty. The father deposed that, the deceased was his son and was 19 months old; on Saturday the child was left alone for a while and he cilmbed upon to a table and got a box of ordinary wax matches; it was about two hours afterwards before they noticed anything wrong with the child; Mrs Riddla found some matches lying about the floor with their heads missing; on the Saturday night the child was vomiting and they gave him an emetic; on Sunday he was running about and seemed all right again until about 4 p.m, when ha became very sleepy and dull; after this, the child gradually got worse, and witness left to get a doctor, but the child died about 1 a.m. Dr Latchmore deposed to examining the body of the child; from the 33 mptoms and from what he had been told in conversation with the father, he had no doubt that death was due to some irritant poisoning of such a nature as phosporous or arsenic, the former being most probable from the description of vomit and manner of death. The jury's finding was to the effect that death was due to phosphorous poisoning as the result of the child swallowing match heads, and they expressed their belief that the par-