WEAK HEART.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 30, 6 February 1939, Page 5

WEAK HEART.

CAUSED MAN'S DEATH.

SWALLOWED PIPE STEM.

COMMENT BY CORONER. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ROTORUA, this day. Stating that the evidence was unsatisfactory and contradictory in some respects, the coroner, Mr. W. L. Richards, to-day returned a verdict that Joseph Davis, bushman, of Mokai, who died in the Rotorua Hospital on January 4, died from cardiac weakness accelerated by the swallowing of a pipe stem.

Davis was a member of a party at Mokai 011 the evening of December 24, when he was allegedly assaulted by a Maori named Hewa Martin, causing him to swallow tile stem of a j>i j>e. He was smoking at the time.

He was admitted to the Rotorua Hospital on December 2.> and died several days later after vomiting the stem of the pipe.

Evidence concern in g the circumstances was taken before Mr. Richards at both Rotorua and Taupo. when the widow of the deceased, and also his thirteen-year - old son. alleged that the assault by Martin upon Davis was unprovoked. On the other hand, several other witnesses present claimed that at the time Davis was not smoking the pipe, and that he was verv drunk.

Martin in evidence claimed that Davis used bad language to him. and that when he remonstrated Davis attacked him, with the result that he punched him in self-defence. Martin also claimed that Davis was not smoking the pipe at the time. He said that normally Davis and himself were the hest of friends, but that Davis when drunk was aggressive and quarrelsome.

The evidence disclosed that a considerable quantity of beer was drunk during the party, some of those present at one stage drinking from buckets.

Medical evidence given by Dr. W. J. Watt, superintendent of the Rotorua Hospital, was to the effect that Davis' death was primarily due to the weak condition of his heart, accentuated by the swallowing of the pipe stem.

The coroner, after pointing out inconsistencies in various sections of the evidence, expressed the opinion that it was possible that Mrs. Davis did not see all that took place, as she had, on the evidence of another woman witness, apparently spent most of the time in a bedroom, leaving the man drinking in another room.

"When it is considered that three kegs of beer were drunk, and the unorthodox method of drinkinjr this from a bucket, it can be readily understood that evidence emanating from an atmosphere such as this cannot possibly be very reliable, and that very little credence can be placed upon it," commented the coroner. ".Although the lodging of the pipe stem in the throat was a contributing factor in accelerating the death of Davis, the evidence does not disclose how it got there, and the doctor is definitely of the opinion that the predominatirg cause of the man's death Ivas the grave condition of his heart."