POISON MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 7

POISON MYSTERY

CHILDREN LEFT WITH IDIOT OPEN VERDICT AT INQUEST From Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Monday. The inquest concerning the death ot the two Maori children, Wera ■Wera, a girl aged 14, and Haki Kara, a boy aged six, who were found poisoned in a whare at Fencourt, Cambridge, on December 28, was resumed before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M.. today. Dr. A. G. Waddell said the bodies were those of well-developed children, and showed no extreme marks ot violence. The girl's health was such, however, that it might have affected her mind, especially if she had received a disappointment. Dr. H. C. Tod, of Cambridge, said he examined the bodies soon after they were found. They showed all the signs cf poisoning. There was a quantity of poison in a tin in the room. A congenital idiot, a middleaged man, was on the premises, but witness could not get a statement from him. The uncle of the girl, Tarawhati Ere, said the girl's father lived at Napier. Her mother was dead. The boy's parents lived at Maungatautari. Witness said 10 natives lived at the whare on his farm. Seven of them went to a wedding feast at Tauwhare on Christmas Day, leaving the two children on the farm with the mental defective, who wa3 attached to the children. The children wanted to go, and the girl sulked. The poison had been purchased for destroying rabbits. Both the children knew what it was used for, and so did the mental defective. An analyst's report showed that both children had consumed poison with some cake. A native constable. William Carran, Said the natives did not suspect the mental defective, who seemed to be ignorant of the cause of the children's death. The coroner found that the chib' ren died from poisoning, but that there was not sufficient evidence to show how it was administered. He added that the poison might have been taken by mutual consent, or the girl might have given it first to the boy and then taken it herself. The idiot might have had something to do with it, but he did not think so.