FATAL INJURIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1939, Page 5

FATAL INJURIES

TIMBER WORKER’S DEATH

ASSAULT AT DRINKING PARTY ALLEGED. STEM OF PIPE SWALLOWED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ROTORUA, January 8. The inquest into the death of Joseph Davis, a timber worker, aged 54. of Mokai, who was admitted to the Rotorua Public Hospital at midnight on December 24 suffering certain injuries, and later was found to have swallowed the stem end of a pipe he had been smoking, took an unexpected turn on Friday. His widow and son alleged that he had been struck by a Maori during a party which had been held in Mokai on the night of December 23. The widow, Sarah Davis, stated that when she joined her husband at the house there were a number of other men there. A three-gallon keg of beer was in the kitchen, and when she arrived at about 10.30 p.m. most of the men appeared to have had a fair amount of drink, though they were not drunk.

By midnight some of the men were reaching the drunken stage, and one man suddenly rose from his seat and struck her husband, apparently without any reason, continued witness. A second blow knocked her husband through the door, and when she reached his side he was bleeding from the mouth. The bowl of a pipe which he had been smoking was found lying on the ground, bitt she could find no sign of the stem.

Witness said that on the next day she took her husband to a doctor at ’ Taupo, who ordered his admission to the Rotorua Hospital, where he died on January 4. At the time of the assault her husband had not been speaking to the man who hit him, and there had been no argument between the two men, who so far as she was aware, were previously the best of friends. Her husband had always enjoyed good health and had never complained of heart trouble.

Douglas Davis, aged 13. said that on December 23 he accompanied his father and the man concerned from Mokai to Cambridge. Before returning home a three-gallon keg of beer was loaded on to the back of the truck, and this was taken into the house in Mokai. When he went inside the house at about 7.30 p.m. there were about six Maoris drinking beer out of a bucket, while his father and the "man were drinking out of mugs. About midnight, while his father was speaking to two other people, the man suddenly rose from his chair and struck him twice, the second blow knocking him out through the door, added witness. The man then went outside and jumped upon his father while he was on the ground. Questioned by the coroner, Mr W. L Richards, the boy stated that during the night his father and the man had only two mugs of beer each. Asked how he knew that was all the two men had to drink, he said he sat there throughout the night and counted the number of drinks his father ..and the man had. He knew of no reason why the man should suddenly assault his father.

The inquest was then adjourned sine die. It is understood that several other witnesses, including medical witnesses, will be called by the police.