Two Mysterious Deaths

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 100, 30 April 1915, Page 6

Two Mysterious Deaths

----- laifc&s V" : ;i.. , ' *V ALLEGED ASfcHYXIATIDN. WELLINGTON fcOMFLAINS OF ESCAPING GAS. ...... ■ 4 ’ Peb Press Association. ■Wellington, April 30. Two deaths occurred in Wellington last night or early this morning under circumstances which lead to the belief that both were due to asphyxiation by gas. Walter Holmes, aged 39, returned to his lodgings, in Mulgrave Street, after working on the wharf, and was fouiid at 7.30 dead in bed. There was no gas-jet in the room, which was on the first floor, but the landlady on going to the room to call Holmes, noticed a strong sniell of gas, and another lodger complained of feeling very sick. The second death occurred in a house on the opposite side of the street to that in which Holmes died. In this case, deceased was James Robert Smith, aged 19, employed as engine cleaner at the Thormlbn railway station, who went to bed at ten o’clock last night. The landlady found him at 7.30 quite dead. He had been frothing at the month. There was a gas meter in the bedroom, but no jet. Smith came Ifom Gisborne, and his parents live at Westport. The window of his room was partly open. Householders in various parts of the city report a strong escape of gas in their houses during the night.