A BOY KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 32, 7 February 1916, Page 4

A BOY KILLED.

PLAYING IN POTTEB.Y YAKD. . AFTER SUNDAY SCHOOL WALK. I

VERDICT OF ACCIDE:STAL LRAxh!

A nine-year-old boy named John Montague Gavin was killed in a pottery In Ponsonby yesterday afternoon ac a - result of being struck by a heavy sewage pipe. The deceased waa the son of Austin Gavin, of C. Coekburn Street, lirey Lynn. • s An inquiry into the circumstances .of' death was made by Mr. F. V. FrazeiS.M., at the Coroner's Court this morn! ing. j Thomas Austin Gavin, father of ti s deceased, said that he saw the boy aliv» yesterday at 2 p.m., when he left home with his elder brother. Later he saw him dead at Carder Bros.' pottery yard. Bevan Gavin, aged 11 years, said'that he and his brother left their parents' home at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon,and went to Sunday school in Poq.. sonby Road. After school was over they went for a walk with a mate named Salvado Astrella. They went to Carder Bros. , pottery, and walked through the yard. While there they crawled through some of the big pipes, which were stacked in a heap. gjg brother was about 40 yards behind witness and Astrella when he heard him ecream. Looking round, witness eatf. his brother lying pinned beneath one of the big pipes. There was another pipe lying at his feet, which had been broken by the fall. Witness removed the pipe I and sent for help. He thought that his I brother have pulled one of thepipes over and caused the other to fall Salvado Astrella confirmed the state-, ments made by Bevan Gavin, adding that after the scream for help deceased did not speak again- • Uγ. V. F. Usher said that he was summoned to Carder Bros.' yard at about •1 p.m. He found the boy John Montague I Gavin lying on the ground dead. Examr ] ination showed the vertebrae column to have been fractured. Death must, hare ibeen almost instantaneous.

A verdict of death as a result of accident was returned by the Coroner. ;