The Inquest on Mrs Wakefield.

Manawatu Herald, 25 June 1898, Page 2

The Inquest on Mrs Wakefield.

On Thursday afternoon the Coroner and a jury of six were engaged in an inquiry into the cause of the dea'h of Mrs William Wakefield, who died on Tuesday evening without any legally qualified person having been in attendance upon her. The result of the inquiry is so far satisfactory in that it proved that the deceased came to her death naturally, but it likewise emphasized the urgency

there is that some properly and legally qualified medical man be obtained for the town. It is evident that inquests will have to be the order of the day whilst people em ploy those whom the law does not look favourably upon, as without the safeguard of an inquiry the. wildest suspicions get afloat. The deceased died according to Dr Reed, who made a post mortem examination, from disease of tha heart. The witnesses examined were — Dr Reed, Mr Wakd field, Mrs Morrison, Mr Hamer, and Dr Jones, who is not legally qualified to practise. In the evidence given by Mrs Morrison, who nursed the deceased, it was stated that some physio received from Mr Hamer caused her to vomit badly, and the medicine was changed. It was also stated that a very heartless letter, which was put in in evidence, was, also on the same day, sent by Dr Jonea to the deceased. Though these causes might have had a bad effect on the deceased it was however not the cause of death, as Dr R -cd carefully explained the condition of the organs. The position is how ever a most unpleasant one to ull concerned, besides causing the country being put to an unnecessary expense and the'jury to much inconvenience, and Booner some steps are taken to alter matters the better.

To show the view the jury hold it may be mentioned that directly after being sworn in the Foreman asked the Coroner if it waa necessary for them to view the body, and on bring informed it was, asked how. the jnry where to get to the house. The Coroner explained that they were allowed to get there and back in any way most convenient to themselves. The Foreman said he was only voioing the wishes of the jury when he asked that the Coroner should, at the Government's expense, provide & conveyance for them. To this the Coronar remarked that the only conveyance he knew of the Government providing was a free trip to gaol, but he never heard of its being; done in any other case, but if the jury would like to remain while he wired their request to the Department, he was entirely in their hands. There was, he said, another way out of the difficulty if they had any idea the Government would accede to their wishes, and that would be by the Foreman engaging the conveyance the cost of which he, the Coroner, would endeavour to obtain, but under no circumstances did he feel inclined to take such responsibility upon himself. The jury eventually wn' on their own way. The jury were, Messrs Edmund Osborne, Foreman ; T. Westwood, W. B. Ehodes, J. McQueen, W. G Robinson, and J. F. Overend, and their verdict was that Mrs Wake field met her death from natural causes on June 21sk, 1898.