ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 120, 14 February 1920, Page 7

ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED

INQUEST ON A CHILD. •; 'At. the Lower Hutt Courthouso yesterday afternoon Sir. V/. Cr .Eiddell, Coroner, hold an inquiry into the cause of the -death of tho thirteen months' old - ; child Joan Dyer, who was drowned in tho Hutt River near Mellings Bridge on . . Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Alice Dyer, wife of Mt. Walter . Berran Dyer'(builder, Lower Hutt), and. . mother of the. child,, stated that she had taken: fivo of 'her children to tho beach about 2.30 p.m. to play on tho sand. ' The children wero only about three yards away from hc-r, and although she was watching them the baby slipped away unnoticed whilo 6he was sewing. There wero about 20 pcoplo on the beach at tho time, and they all mado seaTch forabout 20 niiuutes, the mother finding the child caught in tho brushwood of the groyne and floating in the water. .She, took the baby out and Mr.-Cairns_ tried artificial respiration while Dr. Mirnms was being communicated' with. ■ When doctor arrived ho pronounced life to ■~~be extinct. ' Albert Mirams, medical practitioner, said ho /examined the child and found life to no extinct. 'There wero no marks'on the body and ho was suro death was caiml by drowning. A. verdict of accidentally drowned was returned.