FALL FROM HORSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 193, 17 August 1939, Page 6

FALL FROM HORSE.

POKENO FATALITY.

YOUNG WOMAN'S DEATH.

An inquest was opened yesterday by tip® coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, into the diath of Florence Adela Serpell, spinster, aged 22, who died in a private hospital in Auckland on Sunday last. Deceased resided at Karaka.

Charles Henry Farnsworth, farmer, Karaka, said that on the morning of August 10 h$ left Karaka in his car with his wife and two children and Miss Serpell. Near Paerata they overtook Mrs. Serpell, mother of deceased, who wm riding a horse. Mrs. Serpell dismounted and got in the car, her daughter getting out of the car and mounting the horse. About three and a half miles on the Pokeno side of Pukekohe they passed Miss Serpell and were proceeding ahead when witness' wife looked back and said, "Oh, the little rascal is racing." A second or two later she said, "Oh, she's off." Witness pulled up the car and saw the deceased lying face downwards on the road. She was taken to a doctor and then to a hospital in Auckland.

Deceased suffered a fracture to the base of the skull and hemorrhage of the brain. She died ten minutes after being operated upon.

The inquest was then adjourned.