A BEACH FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 212, 15 February 1915, Page 8

A BEACH FATALITY.

A SAD INCIDENT. On Saturday morning a young lady, Mi>s Agnes dray McAllister, who was a patient in the Cleveland Convalescent Ilome at New Plymouth, suffering from neurasthenia, was missing from her ri'o'r.. A search waj instituted, aiul ■jh'.-f 1 v re noon her dead body was !oi; :d c., the beach mar the Ilinc-Daw-street corner Dr Walker was sum moiled, and he pronounced life extiiicb. Ihe late Miss McAllister, ivlio was 3) years of age, was until recently a remarkablv capable teacher in the service of the Taranaki Education Board, ami j' : "l to reliiKiuish her through :llhealth, Her condition had been .'inproving of late, and on Friday she was, as her medical attendant stated at the ii:<iwest, brighter anil better than he had seen he r si llC e her first admission to the hospital.

THK INQUEST. Aii inouest was held cn Saturday evening before Mr A. Croooke, S.M., ( oi'oner. Serjeant Bowden conducted (li" inouirv on behalf of the police. Mr D. S. Wylie, nodical practitioner deposed that the deceased had bee n admitted early in January to ' the New Plymouth hospital, ' suffering from neurasthenia. Her condition improved, and on 20th January she was removed to Miss Pollock's private hospital, where he attended her, and saw her on Friday morning. Shortly, after S o'clock on Saturday morning, Miss Pollard telephoned him that the deceased was missing. He suggested that she should go to the deceased's mother's place, to ascertain if the, deceased had gone there. In the meantime, lie went to the home, and then reported the occurrence to the police. When admitted to the hospitai deceased's mental and physical condition was depressed, but the possibility of this I fatality occurring had never suggested ; itself. Nor did ho think tlwre bad been any intentio,, of suicide, but that she had wandered more or less blindly into the pea. On Friday morning, oil the occasion of his last visit, she was better and brighter than at any time since Ist, January, and her condition was certainly not such as would suggest thj possibility of suicide. To the Coroner: The deceased had never shown any inclination to leave the hospital. She suffered from sleeplessness. She might have become doranged, but he did not think it probable.

r>r K A. Walker fjave evidence of having made an pxummntion of tlio b"dv. which 1 ■> had identified. The body vat lying prone across n rounded reck, of fair size. The body wa-i partly covered by her nightdress and a light mackintosh coat. Except for a slight ■wound 011 the point of the chin, there were no marks of violence. Death was the result of asphyxia, due to drowning. To the Coroner: The wound was called by a fall, during life. He had known of cases where sufferers from neurasthenia had got up in the night in tins way. partly dressed, and gone cut without tollii.fr anyone. Sarah Pollock, proiiriotross of a convalescent home in Vivian Street, gave evidence that deceased had been a patient at her establishment. When shlast saw deceased at about 0.30 on Friday evening, she seemed fairly well. Tf.»r condition had bee n improving during the previous few days. Upon her absence being discovered at about 7.30 o'clock on Saturday the medical attendant was advised, and a search was instituted. Witness had never for a moment thought the deceased was a person likely to' do herself a n injury Until the 'fatality was proved, she had 110 idea that the deceased could walk as far as the beach. Iler opinion was-that the deceased had merely wandered away, and got lost. She ventured the opinion that the deceased had set, out for her mother's. T> Wylio interposed that the deceased had been suffering from persistent. insomnia, and people i„ that condition u ere liable to leave a house—as deceased had done—and walk about. Tie did not for a moment believe that the deceased had intended to commit suicide. The evidence ofj .Tames AlJist. r, brother of the deceased, was that her mother had been staving in Iliiie Stivt lately, and deceased had staved th"ro also.

41. < J" or rot " rn(, < l an open vordH that the deceased was found drowned, and that there was no evidence to show how she got into the water.