DUCKING STOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 15

DUCKING STOOL.

FITTING PUNISHMENT.

IRRESPONSIBLE GCSSIPS. CORONER'S STRONG COMMENT » (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. Friday. False and malicious rumours disseminated by anonymous persons were hotly condemned by the coroner, Mr. Gilbertson, at the inquest to-day into the death of Elsie Bell Mace, whose body was recovered from the harbour on August 26 after she had been missing from her home at Wadostown since Julv 24. An old English ducking stool, he said, would be a fitting punishment for the persons who had spread such rumours, which had resulted in exhaustive police inquiries among friends and relatives of the deceased. The rumours conveyed to tlie police had entailed much time and trouble to investigate, and were proved to be utterly groundless. "I wish to state that the author, who, under the shield of anonymity, disseminates malicious and sinister rumours as regards the motives and character of relatives of a subject of coronial inquiry is a contemptible coward," said Mr. Gilbertson. "He or she stabs in the; dark those whose anxiety and trouble should bo relieved, rather than accen-! tuated by lying innuendo or a suggestion of evil intentions. It is regrettable that the old English punishment of a village ducking stool cannot be applied to them as a deterrent to all such irresponsible gossips. Their motto appears to be suppressio veri euggestio falsi— fling enough mud and some of it is bound to stick." On giving his verdict, Mr. Gilbertson said: "The evidence before me, although not absolutely conclusive, indicates that the deceased had arrived at a time in life when mental instability was not unusual, and I find that the deceased took her life bv drowning herself in the Wellington Harbour on July 24 in an excess of mental derangement."