FLOCK HOUSE BOY FOUND DEAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2994, 4 February 1926, Page 3

FLOCK HOUSE BOY FOUND DEAD.

BECAME MORBID ON ACCOUNT

OF LONELINESS,

Daimevirke, Yesterday,

An inquest was held at Te Uri, by the Coroner, Mr, Walter Dobson, into the death of Wtilliam James Little, aged 16, who was found dead on the farm of Arthur Francis Dampney on Monday evening. Evidence showed that the lad had been working on the farm since May Ist,. being apprenticed to Dampney. He was of a quiet disposition and not inclined to mix in company. Sometimes he was left alone at one farm and had his meals in the kitchen. At Xmas he was left alone for a fortnigl/t, but never complained' of being lonely and he had written to Mr. Thomas Rowley Lees, managing Trustee of the N.Z. Sheep-Owners Fund stating that he was getting on very well and liked being with Dampney, who had intended visiting him this week. The lad was last see alive oil Friday, when he was left alone on the farm and when another employee returned on Monday he found him dead in a plantation near the house, with a rifle alongside. The Coroner found deceased had died of a gunshot wound apparently self-inflicted and commented that indications pointed to deceased having become morbid through being lonely. He considered it was not fair that deceased lnul been left along during the Christmas period and that there should be a regular system of inspection of lads so apprenticed.