CHILD'S BODY FOUND.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLIV, Issue 60, 5 February 1918, Page 5

CHILD'S BODY FOUND.

FLOATING IN A DAM. OI'UNED AND ADJOURNED. Two lads named .lames O'Reilly and Lang AJcl'oll (employed on Mr W. Telford's Clifton Sratioii, Waiwera), when going fur a bathe in a dam near the l:umes:ead on Sunday evening -discovered life, body of a fully developH.l newly-born female child iloatiny fac--downwards in the water. Tliey immediately informed one of the men employed on the station, and the police wen; communicated with. The body, which had evidently been in the wafer for a few days, was biought to the Btil.-hitha Police Station on Sunday, where. Dr Steuhouse conducted a pes; mortem examination. An inquest was opened on the body at the Balclutha Courthouse ou Itonday moming before Mr 11. A. Young, S.M., coroner. ,las. O'Reilly (gardener's assistant, employed at Clifton Station, Waiwera South) said that on Saturday night (February 2) he was going to have a swim in a dam below the stables near the homestead, and discovered the body of a child floating in the water near the edge. Witness was accompanied by a companion named Lang McColl. A piece of an old towel was tied round the neck of the child, which other\vi>e was naked. The body found in the dam was the same as that, seen by witness at the police station yesterday. When witness and McColl found the body they turned it over and then went and reported the matter to Mr I'attinsou, an employee on the statlou. "Witness did not notice whether the body belonged to a male or a female child. Lang MeColl ■ (gardener's assisUut, employed at Clifton Station, Waiwera South) gave evidenco in corroboration ! of the statement made by the previous ! witness. Constable 'Almond at this stage asked that the inquest be adjourned, as certain inquiries were Vdi'.g made into the circumstances surrounding the death of the child. An adjournment was accordingly granted until Monday, February 18.