SYDNEY TRAGEDY.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 March 1919, Page 3

SYDNEY TRAGEDY.

DROP FROM A HIGH CLIFF.

MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN.

Further details of the Sydney tragedy, by which, a mother, Mrs Eda Kate Hart, aged 29, and her two children—Nancy, aged four years, unjd Alan, aged eight months—met their death as the result of a drop of 200 feel over the cliff at South Head into the water below, have come to hand by mail.

When Mr Hart, a! member of the firm of F. Hart and Sons, Mostimm, left home on the day of the tragedy there was nothing to indicate what was in store for him on his return. Mrs Hart went about her household duties as usual, and -after lunch set out, in company with her children, on a visit to har sister, Mrs Fraser Rosevilllc. Instead of going there, however, she caught a boat to Watson's Bay,

reaching the bay .?.t about tour o'clock. She then walked along the path skirting the park, and climbed to the rocks half-way to the crest of the hill. Here she rested in a summer house, 200 yaitfs past the Gap. It is not known what she .Jdd then, or how long she rested; but it could nor have been more than half an hour. She must have fed the baby, as an empty ja,v and feeder testify. Soon after this she and the children disappeared over the cliffs.

The discovery of traces of the tragery was made by Mr Albert Roger Killeen, a soldier. He was going home from the camp when he saw a lady's hat, the small hat of a;*girl, a purse containing 12s, and a pair of baby's boots, two handcfchiefs —one with the worfl "Hart" on the corner — and a pair of ladies' white silk

gloves. These were on a seat, seven feet from tho edge of the cliffs|| The baby's body was found early tho following afternoon near the Middle Head. Later the body of tho mother was founfd and taken to the mortuary. The body showed no signs of violence. Mrs Hart had fqr some time suffered from ilMiealthv