CHILD’S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 117, 11 February 1926, Page 5

CHILD’S DEATH

VERDICT OP ACCIDENTAL* DROWN. ING. Mr. E. Pago, S.M., conducted an inquiry .on Tuesday afternoon into the death of Vincent Herbert Revell Wardell, aged one year and eight months, a son of Mrs. Wardell, of Sydney, Australia. who was accidentally drowned in the Wainui-o-mata Stream on Monday. Evidence went to show that Mrs. Wardell arrived from Sydney five months ago on a visit to her father, Mr. M. Mount, of Epuni Street, Lower Hutt, and for the past two months she had been employed by Mrs. Andrews, postmistress, ,at Wainui. On Monday, at about 11 a.m;, she was in a paddock close by the post office, with her son and Mrs. Andrews’s son, gathering mushrooms. She was called back into tho post'office for about five minutes, and when she returned Mrs. Andrews’s boy had gone’ further afield, and her own boy was missing. Calling on some of th) neighbours for assistance, a search was made, and tho boy’s body was found by Sir. JI. Lynch in about five feet of water 250 yards down the Wainui Stream. Artificial respiration was 'tried without avail, and Dr.-Little, of Lower Hutt, who was' summoned, could only pronounce life to be extinct. The finding of the Coroner was that the boy had been accidentally drowned.