INQUEST.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2413, 10 December 1880, Page 2

INQUEST.

An enquiry was held at the Pleasant Point Hotel this morning, before 11. Bcctham Esq., Coroner, and a jury, touching the death of William Powell a child aged three years and ten months who died on Wednesday at midnight, in consequence of injuries received the same afternoon by his clothes catching fire. The evidence of the deceased's mother, the wife of a working man residing at the Point, went to show -that on Wednesday afternoon last she went out to borrow some blue or washing powder from a neighbor as she was going to wash clothes. A fire was burning in the grate and the deceased and another little child were left playing about the cottage. The mother was only gone ten minutes and when she returned she found the younger child, aged about two years, crying at the door and she also noticed a strong smell of burning. On entering the cottage she found the deceased lying on the floor with his clothes completely burnt off. and the lower portion of his body very severely burnt. Medical assistance was obtained as soon as possible, but the child succumbed the same night to its injuries. The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidentally burned,” and added a rider to the effect that the practice of leaving young children alone in a room containing fire was an exceedingly reprehensible one.