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THE SUICIDE AT THE WAITOHI.

The following is the evidence taken at the inquest on this case. Peter Friel, sworn, said - I am a fanner living on the Waitohi Flat. Deceased, Mary Connor, was in any service as house servant, and dairy maid. I last saw her about, six o’clock on the morning of the I3lh of January, as she passed through to the house. I noticed nothing particular about her then. She generally went out at 1 hat time to milk the cows. About half-past eight or nine I got up, and its she had not come hack, I "called out at the hack door for her. but got no answer. I - came then to this, hut (in which the inquest was held) with the child in my arras, to see if I could see her. My wife had gone to Temuka about half-past six that morning, and I was left alone. As I passed the shed towards the hut I sang out again to her but got no. answer. I then went down to the creek, thinking she might have fallen in. I was alarmed as tiro morning was wet, and the bank steep, and the water deep. I had looked into the hut where the milk was kept, and did- not see any dishes of new milk, and 1 looked at the cows and .they seemed as if they had not been milked. Ending no trace of her in the creek, I concluded that she had either gone with my wife to Temuka, or that she had gone to Daniel Ilahnay’a .About halfpast one in the afternoon I went up to Coil’s place, where my wife was to call on her way home from Temuka. I found my wife there, and told her I had not scon deceased since six o’clock, and said 1 was afraid that she had been drowned in the creek when drawing water. I then came down directly with Charles Coll, and got a fork and went into the creek, and searched .all the deepest parts. By this time four or five other persons had come up. Some of them came 1 by the loose box, between the house and the hut, and 1 heard one- of them say, : “ She iv here. ’ Wo all came up then, and one of them s'i 1 “ She is hanged.” I went to the dour and looked in, but could see nothin" at'first. Cue of them then said look in the corner. I looked, and saw her hanging from the rafter. We opened the door and went in. Some proposed to leave her hanging, and some to cot her down. One party cut the cord, and considering the place too dirty too leave her in, carried her to this hut. There was no sign of life then. She seemed quite cold. One person was sent to the Point to give information to the police, and then to Kerry Town to inform her frimds. She had been in my employment some eight or nine months. She seemed to be always very quiet and distant, or unsociable. She always seemed to forget anything she had been told to do. My wife lately told me she thought the girl, was getting silly.- ; To the, -Coroner ; The second time I passed the loose-box I shut the door. The bottom leaf being about a foot open. I put (ho bar across, and put the pin in, and then came on to the dairy. The' calves were in the looso-hox, and I thought' from the appearance of the buckets in the hut that they had been fed. I cannot assign any reason for her committing suicide. She never, so far as I am aware, threatened to dp so. For the last three weeks her appetite failed:; she did not eat so much as she used to do. I am not aware that she had any sweetheart. I never dreamt of looking in the loose-box for her ; it was the calves house, and very dirty. There was a pile of empty sacks at the back. She had evidently stood upon these, and fastened the rope on to the rafter, and jumped clown. To Jurors : To the best of ray know-

ledge she slept in the house the previous night. She had no angry words with my wife, and she was never' badly"used in the house., When asked. ;at different times why sliohad not-done what she had been told, to do, she answered, that she forgot,’ She was usually, very quiet, and often, would not answer when spoken to. We considered; that this ‘might have arisen from our not understanding each,.other’s language. She used to speak "hurriedly ; it seemed her natural habit. Patrick-Mllntyre'," sworn :T, am; a carter, living on the, Wajftohi.Fifth , I knew deceased. Yesterday^..afternppn . Charles - Coll came to us, and told us that Mary Connor bad been missing since morning, and that Mrs Friel wanted us down to search for her. Patrick Coll and I were, the hist to go down. Peter Friel and the rest were searching the creek. We came to the shed, and looking through the seams of the upper* leaf of the door, I saw Mary Connor hanging from the rafter. I then told the others that she was there. They all came, up ami we went in and had her cut down. I assisted in carrying her into this hut. She was quite cold, and hud evidently been dead for sometime. I did not examine, the rope to see bow it was fastened around her neck. P. Thoreau,' police constable stationed at Temuka, sworn; Last evening, about half-past nine, 1 saw the body of the de-, ceased lying in the hut. It was cold, and fully dressed, with the exception of hat and stockings. A piece of rope and an apron were partly fastened round her throat. On examining the body I found the neck broken. I had' the body removed to where it now lies. I consider .the jerk from the socks where she must have stood, and from , whence she must have sprung, sufficient to cause dislocation of the neck. The pile was about eighteen inches or two feet high. The jury, of which Mr M‘Cabe was foreman, returned a. verdict to the effect that deceased committed Suicide, being at the time of unsound mind.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TEML18790118.2.7

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 114, 18 January 1879, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,059

THE SUICIDE AT THE WAITOHI. Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 114, 18 January 1879, Page 2

THE SUICIDE AT THE WAITOHI. Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 114, 18 January 1879, Page 2

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