DROWNING FATALITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3061, 4 December 1908, Page 5

DROWNING FATALITY.

CHILD LOSES ITS LIFE

WANDERS INTO A WATERHOLE.

A drowning fatality occurred at Opaki yesterday morning, the victim being Catherine Nora Cross, aged fourteen months, infant daughter of Mr and Mrs Charles Cross, of Opaki.

The circumstances were that at about half-past nine in the morning the child, accompanied by her sister, about two and a half years of age, were found by the mother to be missing from the yard, and on Mrs Cross making investigations she found the child floating, face downwards, in a water hole about 3ft 6in daep, some fifty yards from the house, in an adjoining paddock. A neighbour, Mr Fendall, was immediately summoned, and on the child being taken out o? the water by the latter, life was found to be extinct. CORONER'S INQUEST. An inquest was vheld at the residence of the child's parents by Mr W. P. James, District Coroner, last evening, into the circum3tances surrounding the fatality. Katherine Cross, mother of the deceased child, stated that the two children were playing about near the house just before the accident. On missing them she went in search of the children, and found the eldest returning alone. She hastened to the water-hole in the paidock next the house, and there saw the child lying in the water. She at once summoned Mr Fendall, who took the child out of the water, but it was found to be dead. Dr Cowie and Mr Fendall also gave evidence, the former to state that death had apparently been caused Jby drowning. The coroner returned a verdict of accidental drowning.