TWO INQUESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1937, Page 13

TWO INQUESTS.

LATE FINDING OF BODY. NO LFaIAL PRECEDENT.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. A "second" inquest concerning the death, of Hilda Agnes Greenhill, who disappeared from her home at Cambridge on August 7, lO.'J.j, was held l>efore Mr. S. L. Patereon, S.M., yesterday afternoon. The coroner said that at- the time of deceased's disappearance it was thought ehe had been drowned in the Waikato River. However, the body was not recovered, and some months later an application was made to the AttorneyGeneral, who directed that an inquest should be held. On December 27, 1936, the body of Miss Greenhill was recovered from the river. A position then arose for which there wae no legal precedent to guide the coroner as to whether he should reopen an inquest already held or hold a new one. Once an inquest had been held, said Mr. Patereon, the coroner had, strictly speaking, no authority to hold another. Nor in the present ease could it be claimed that the (second inquest was beirijr h«*l«l on tin , same Iwxly. as there I was no body at the firi=t inquest. But the \tody had boen found in cireum- ! stances that demanded an inquest, and . an inquest was also needed to establish identity. In the present ease, although the first inquest wan not void, it might be held to be conditional. After quoting cases which indicated the coroner's duty to hold an inqueet where a body was found under circumstances which necessitated an inquiry Mr. Patereon said he had proceeded to hold an inquest on the body found in the river. Some evidence was heard and the inquest was then adjourned, the proceedings being reported- to the Attorney-General. The coroner's own observations on the circumstances had been confirmed. A verdict that the body found in the Waikato River on December 27, 1936, was that of Hilda Agnes Gri*enhill, concerning whom an inquest had l>ecn previously held at the direction of tne Attorney-General in virtue of section 3 of the Coroners' Amendment Act was returned.