FALL OR LEAP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1939, Page 8

FALL OR LEAP

FROM SEVEN=ST()RY CITY BUILDING FATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTER. TRAGEDY IN DARKNESS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright SYDNEY, June 16. The death was reported tonight in tragic circumstances of the New South Wales Minister of Labour and Industry. Mr Herbert Middleton Hawkins, who fclL.cr leapt from a seventh story window ill the new city building of the Australian Provincial Association and crashed into Martin Place. He was killed outright. The tragedy occurred in darkness at a peak hour, with shopping crowds passing by. Mr Hawkins's body crashed on to the pavement, miraculously' missing two men standing six feet apart. Mr Hawkins, who was a Member of the Legislative Council, was aged 63. He received his present Ministerial portfolio after the death of Mr J. M. Dunningham, who, it will be recalled dropped dead while in office at the height of the preparations for the sesquicentenary celebrations, of which he was in charge. Quite recently there was some talk of taking the Labour and Industry portfolio away from Mr Hawkins and transferring it to a Member of the Legislative Assembly.

STATE FUNERAL (Received This Dav. 11.25 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Mr Hawkins fell a hundred feet. He appeared to be in good spirits when last seen alive. The office from which he fell is the one in which Mr Dunningham collapsed and died. There will be a State funeral on Monday.