DEATHS ON MOANA.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 January 1919, Page 4

DEATHS ON MOANA.

EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY. WELLINGTON, January 27. The inquiry into the deaths of Dr. Grimm and,Miss" Isbister on the steamer Moana, was resumed this morning. Dr. Oswald C. Earp Thomas, dental surgeon, who was a passenger on the Moana, described what he did when called on deck to see Dr. Grimm and Miss Isbister. The teeth of the deceased, he said, were clenched, making it impossible to open the jaws to get to the tongue. The eyes were open and ~raring, the pupils not (reacting to light, while the breathing was unnatural. He did not notice any smell from the lips of the patients, but on his own hands, later on, he detected a smell of something like metal polish. William Ives, a steward on !:he Moana, in reply to the question, "Did you say to the chief officer, 'He put oxalic acid in,' " replied "Well, I may have, but I do not remember. I had no reas on to believe oxalic acid was used in the drinks instead of sugar. I dil not know if any oxalic acid was kept in solution in the bar." The oxalic acid in his possession, he said, was in bulk. He could give no reason for having made the remark attributed to him by other witnesses that the sugar was next to oxalic acid in the bar. A pantryman and a stewardess gave evidence that they did not hear the second-steward say, "My God, I've poisoned, two people with oxalic acid instead of sugar." V. Belshaw, second steward, recalled, said he gave no oxalic acid out for cleaning purposes since leaving San Francisco. To his knowledge oxalic acid in solution was not kept in the bar.

NO TRACE OF OXALIC ACTS. WELLINGTON, this day. Expert evidence given to-day on the deaths of Dr. Grinjm and Miss Isbister showed that no trace was found of oxalic acid in the sugar used for drinks or in the~liquid left in the glasses or bottles. The symptoms are consistent with cyanide poisoning. The enquiry was 'adjourned untjil Friday to enable the manufacturers bl the soda-water used on board to 5 bring