DIED OF STARVATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2221, 2 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIED OF STARVATION.

11 Tired and worn out with anxiety" were the words written on a scrap of paper found upon the body of a labourer named Ward, which was discovered on the beach at Island 15 iy on the 20th Sept Coupled with the condition of thp body, and the man's family, it told ahcirtrending tale of destitution, ending in a sad, lonely death, such as niuht excite the sympathy of everyone in the community. The jury who sat upon the inquest returned a verdict of "Death fiom starvation and there can be no doubt of the justness of finding, for the medical testimony pro\ed that the unhappy men had been days without any fnod whatever. Enquiries I have personally made show that Wai d had denied himself food in order that his wife and fight childicn might have something with which to keep body and soul together. The postmortem examination showed that there was an entire absence of internal fat, in dicatiug that but a very small quantity of nourishment had been pai taken of for a long time past, while the intestine* contained nothing w lmtever beyond about an ounce of nuiscus. Dr llutchinson stated that the man had died of slow starvation. Ward was a man of rarely sensitive disposition, and his wife, like him, possessed that pride which, though a high virtue under ordinary circumstances, may almost be said to be a vice in the condition in which the family were for some, time before the husband's death. For two months he had been unable to find employment, or to properly teed his family ; yet neither husband nor wife allowed even the nearest neighbours to know of their condition. The man all this time did his best to find work of any kind, and had he allowed his condition to be known, he would have leceived abundance of help. But he .suffered on heroically, nm\ fiually wmideicd away and laid down upon the sand and died. Such is the sad story of a death that has caused a thrill of almost horror throughout the city. The widow told her tale of sorrow between heavy aob.s, and when the note which her husband had last written was handed to her, her grief wius uncontrollable. Poor soul, her's was a hard lot, rendered indesciibably pitiful by this last grief, which filled her cup t-j overflow ing Why the man wrote tho>e woids it is dilicalt to surmise. He did not write them at home, and there is nothing to load to the .supportion that he meditated self-vlesti notion I'osiibly ho felt that he could not hold out much longer, and wishod to leave behind a mute jecoid of the troublehe wa« too sensitive t<» give words to while liunu. Airs Waul, I learn (though it did not conn 1 ( ut m evidence), had been cutting up her bedstead for fuel, being unable to pun haMj the mh ille^t quantity of firing. The veidu t shown is one which is unique in this cit\ , and I believe in the (Vouy. — Wellington Correspondent of Lyttleton Ti'ius.

<!i »ss i-> tli'.' best vmteiiil for dairy p,nis , next eai tlunw me, Turned iron .md wood will do if well clcansfd. Zinc, £\ilv:iuiHod iron riud lend are highly ol>jeot)ou.Ll)lo, as tho lactic acid cuntiine^ iv four nnlk attacks tlio /me or lead and forms poisonous soluble b ilts.