MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN OLD DUNEDINITE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2289, 19 July 1880, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN OLD DUNEDINITE.

A well-known resident of Dunedin of the olden time, Mr Henry Charles Farley, the builder of Farley’s Old Arcade, died a few days ago in the Sydney Infirmary, under very unhappy circumstances. He had lately returned from Victoria, and had been residing with his sister-in-law, Mrs T. H. Hainford, at Forest Lodge, whose house he left on the evening of the 9th June, stating that he was going to attend a lecture. He did not, however, return, and Mrs Hainford, knowing his eccentricity, believed he might have left for Queensland, and consequently felt no uneasiness at his absence. On the next morning at 1 o’clock he was found by the police lying in an unconscious state on the footpath of the Newtown road, and being unknown to the police, was taken to the Infirmary, whore he remained in the same state for seven day's until his death. Gross negligence attaches to the police, for, notwithstanding that his bank-book and various commercial documents, with a letter bearing bis name and address, were found in bis pocket and handed to the superintendent, no' effective inquiry about him was mule either by the police or the secretary to the institution. When lie left his sistci-in-law’s house he carried a valuable gold watch, but of ’ this there is no account ; and from the fact that but nine pence was found in his pockets, the probability is that be was robbed. The medical evidence was to the effect that the cause of his deatli was cerebral apoplexy-, resulting from the rupture of a diseased artery on the left side of the brain. A verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was returned by the coroner’s jury. Mr Farley had lately resided in Queensland, where he is believed to have speculated successfully', and be 'is supposed to have been very wealthy. Since writing the foregoing, a committee of inquiry has been held at the In Urinary, with the extraordinary result that the Board has reported that no one connected with the institution is to blame, inasmuch as all the papers and documents found on the deceased were handed over to the police. The medical man of the institution says that the cause of death did not arise from violence, but there is nevertheless a strong suspicion on the public mind that there was foul play, and this grows stronger from the fact that Hie watch lias been discovered in a pawnbroker’s shop, where it was pledged by a woman, who has since been arrested, for the small sum of To 10s. The circumstances of the case arc now being vehemently' commented on by r the Press. —“ Times ” Correspondent.