CHILD’S TRAGIC DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 November 1922, Page 6

CHILD’S TRAGIC DEATH.

“BURNED TO A CINDER.” LEFT ALONE IN HOUSE. TRAGEDY NEAR INGLEWOOD. The story of the tragic death by burning of a little girl of eight, named Mary Margaret Frost, whose parents are farmers living on the Surrey Road, Inglewood, was told in the Stratford Court yesterday, at a coroner’s inquest held by Mr. C. D. Sole, J.P., with ■a jury consisting of Messrs. H. C. North (foreman), C. Jackson, W. W. Hodge and M. J. Jury. Josephina 'Frost, step-mother of the child, gave evidence of identification. She said Hie family arose at 6.30 a.m. the day of the child’s death, lit a fire and had a cup of tea. The family then went away to the cowshed, leaving the baby and Mary in the house with instructions to the latter to place sticks of wood on the fire, which was in an open fireplace. Two kerosene tins, filled with water, were standing upon two irons above the fire, but the child had no occasion to touch these. While absent from the house, the parents expected the child to be getting ready for school. The first intimation they had that anything was amiss was when the child appeared at the door of the house. She was enveloped in flamps and was screaming. The mother wrapped her skirts about the child and extinguished the flames. The scrim underneath a couch in the room was found to foe afire, the child apparently having crept under the couch in an attempt to extinguish her burning clothes. The child was conscious and told her mother that sfie was reaching for water from the tins on the fire. She had dropped her face towel into one of the tins, and was try. ing to take it out with a fork. The child stopped there and said no more. The burns were dressed with oil and the child was taken to the doctor in Stratford.

Dr. D. Steven said when he examined the child* in the Stratford hospital, she was suffering from burns on the face, neck, trunk and down to the middle of the right thigh. There was no hope of her being able to live, but everything was done by way of treatment. She died a few hours after admission to the hospital. Death was due to shook and,, exhaustion as a direct result of turns'. The coroner said he was sorry to say there were too many accidents of this kind while the parents were milking. Tn all his experience as a coroner he had never seen anyone so frightfully burned as this child. Her body was absolutely burned to a cinder. The girl was one of the finest children for her age he had seen. Her father was a ■struggling returned soldier farmer, and •he knew the jury would sympathise with the parents in the loss of the child, which was not only a loss to the parents, but also to the community. A verdict of accidental death in accordancp with the medical testimony was returned, no blame for the occurrence being attached to anyone.