EIGHT INQUESTS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23051, 20 June 1940, Page 10

EIGHT INQUESTS

CORONER’S VERDICTS

Eight inquests were conducted by Mr E. C. Lewey, S.M., at the Courthouse yesterday. A verdict of death by suicide was returned 'at an inquest on Maurice Selwyn Gumming, a clerk, aged 23, of 100 Bealey street. Gumming was found dead on May 1 in a spare section at the back of the house in which he lived, with a .303 rifle alongside him. The Coroner found that Gumming shot himself in the head. Knocked Down by Car The death of Lilian Hay Forbes, a single .woman, aged 52, of Tai Tapu, was investigated. Evidence was given that Miss Forbes was knocked down by a motor-car when she was walking along the main Christchurch-Akaroa highway at Tai Tapu at 6 p.m. on May

The driver of the motor-car, John Manning, a grader driver, of Methyen, said that Miss Forbes was almost in the middle of the road, and appeared to be walking across from the left to the right side. He drew to the left to pass behind her, and suddenly she turned to the left also and the right front mudguard apparently bit ber. The Coroner found that Miss Forbes died from fracture of the cervi«:al vertibrae and consequential injuries suffered when at Tai Tapu, while she was walking along the Main road, she was run into and knocked down by a car owned and driven by John Manning. • Deaths from Heart Failure "Verdicts of death from heart failure were returned at inquests into the deaths of Amy Rose Amanda Mulcock, aged 63, of Heathfield avenue, who collapsed on the footpath in High street oh May 20; William Edward Legge, a painter, aged 67, who collapsed in Stanmore road on May 20; and Sydney Ronald Alexander, a joiner, aged 28, of Garlands road, Woolston, who died also on May 20. Accident With Dray An accident with a dray in the Waimakariri riverbed was told in evidence in the inquest into the death of John Haskett, a labourer, aged 55, of Yaldhurst, who was employed by the Paparua County Council. A verdict was returned of death from shock after immersion in water, when the dray he was driving capsized and threw him and his companions into the river. Child’s Death A verdict of death from congestion of the brain, following an inflammatory k condition of the bowel, was returned at an inquest into , the death of Terence Wayne Calder, aged four months, son of Mr and Mrs C. J. M. Calder, of . Perth street. Knocked Down by Tram The death of William John Ashby, otherwise known as William John Sutton, a retired farm labourer, aged 70, was investigated. A ’ verdict was returned that Ashby died from injuries he suffered when he walked in front of a tram in Moorhouse ayenue and was knocked down. The accident happened on April 6.