AWFULLY SUDDEN DEATH.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 291, 18 August 1888, Page 2

AWFULLY SUDDEN DEATH.

Wk regret to have to record an awfully sudden death, which took place at Te xlroha yesterday afternoon, It appears that at a quarter to three o'clock Mr William Griffiths (an old resident amongst us, who lived with his wife and daughter in a cottage on Lipsoy's block), came home, having been down in the township on some business, and was standing in front of the kitchen fire, playing with his daughter, a little girl of about ten years of age, when without a cry or the slightest warning he fell back on the floor ilca<3. Medical assistance was promptly secured, hut only to pronounce that life was extinct ; indeed it appears deceased never uttered a 3ound or showed the least signs of life from the time he fell bnck. A. number of sympathising neighbours were quickly on the spot, who did what they could to console the poor wife, to whom the shock was a terrible blow, whose grief can be imagined, and for whom the greatest sympathy is felt and expressed on all hands. Deceased was apparently about sixty years of age, and although by no means a strong man, nevertheless it appears it was not known he had heart disease, which the doctor stated was in his opinion the cause of death. Yesterday afternoon Sergeant Emerson telegraphed to the coroner, Mr Soaranckp, and received a reply that he would be in Te Aroha to hold the inquest at hnlf-past three p.m. to-day.