BALUSTER SLIDE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9632, 12 June 1919, Page 2

BALUSTER SLIDE.

BOY DIES FROM INJURIES.

WELLINGTON, June 11. A boy named Leslie Clifford Lang died at the hospital as the result of injuries received through falling from balusters at the Boy's Institute on May 15. The medical evidence was to. the effect that when admitted, the boy was in a state of collapse. He gradually improved till June 6, when he complained of headache. An operation was performed, but the boy died on Monday morning last. The cause of death was acute meningitis due to fracture of the skull. It, was stated that it was a custom for boys to slide down the balusters. Deceased fell twenty feet, his head striking the concrete floor. John C. Cook, director of the Boys' Institute, said the boys had been checked from the practice of sliding down the balusters when observed, but it was difficult to devise a suitable protection as a preventive. The boy's father, in evidence, suggested that wire netting should be placed to break a fall in case of a similar accident. Mr Frazer, S.M., said it was difficult to check such a practice. The authorities of the institute . had done their best, and he hoped some measuse would be devised, to make the stairs secure.