THE TORY-PLACE FIRE.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 107, 7 May 1895, Page 4

THE TORY-PLACE FIRE.

♦ Mr. Aahotoft, Distriot Coroner, held an inquest yesterday afternoon at Mount Cook Police Station on the bodies of Isabella Patrick, wife of William Bell Patrick, and Francis Patrick, their son, aged two years, who died from "injuries canEed by the fire in Tory.place on Friday night. Mr. G. Webb was Foreman of the jury. Sergeant - Major Kamsay and Sergeant Shirly represented the police. l)r. Ewart, Medical Superintendont of the Hospital, desoribed the injuries to the two deceased. Mrs Patriok never recovered from the Bhook, but became conscious on Sunday. She stated that, feeling faint on Friday evening, she went to lie down, and she remembered nothing morn. All her injnries might have been done in CO seconds The cause of death was shock to the system from the burns. Peter Moroney, a neighbonr of the deceased, desoribed the nay in which he brought them out of the burning house. When he went in Patrick in a stifled way called for some one to rescue his wife and child. The woman seemed quite aenaiblo, and a lot oi feathers as from a bed were flying about her room. The Patricks had been living nnxt to him for 18 months. Mrs. Patrick's Jiabita wore those of a eobor woman, and Patriok, as far »3 ho knew, was a sober man. Patrick had been idlo for weeks Th«y were poor, bnt witness thought they were too prond to ask for relief. James Hougham, bootmaker, gave similar evidence. Henry Slntter, boot finisher, proved taking the cbild through the window c.f PatvioVa bedroom cut of tho previous wimps*.' arm". Ho also assisted to remove Mrs Patrick from her bedroom Kdith Perrin, aged !.■>, deposed that on Friday night, about 7 o'clock, shi went ictc* Patrick's bonso, and saw him lying 0:1 tbe bed with lii'b clothes on, and Mrs. Patrick was in tho kitchen with tho child. There was no light in the bedroom, but there was in tho kitobon. Mrs. Patrick appeared to have taken something to drink, but was not drunk. She said that her head was bad, and that she would like to go to bod. Witness had on a previous occasion .seen Mrs. Patrick the worse for drink, and hud seen her take liquor : bnt she had not seen Mr. Patrick the worse for drink for some time past. Sho knew that the Patricks' custom was to place a lighted candle on a ohair between a oretonne-covered box and the bed. There were no blankets on the bed -only sheets and an eiderdown quilt. Mrß. Hedges, residing in Tory-plaoe, stated that at 6.20 on Friday night she saw Patriok staggering do to tho lane, and concluded he was drunk. He. went into the hotel, bnt only stayed two or three minutes, when he came back staggering woree than ever. Alice Alyward, a neighbour of tb B deceased, started tbat Mrs. Patriok and her child were in her house between 6 and G. 30 p.m. on Friday, and Mrs. P*trick was then perfectly sober. Mrs. Coles, wife of the landlord of tbe Prince of Wales Hotel, Tory-street, deposed that she served Patrick with a small glass of beer and 9d worth of brandy on Friday, between o and 5.30 pm. At that time he did not appear to be intoxicated. He sa ! d ho had been to the races, and had won .£lOO She was sure he waa not in the hotel later tlan she had btated, for ehe was in tbe bar all tbe time. Had never seen Patriok drank Thos. George Bell Patriok, brother of William Bell Patriok, sfajted that the latter visited him in Snnedin last November. Witness thep assisted him very considerably' and about December tarnished him with » horee and cart, and obtained oredit with the Gear Company to enable him to start butchering in Wellington. Ho understood tfcat Einee then his brother had been engaged on a steamer. Had witness known his brother was in need he would havo assisted him, for he had never been refused help. John Thomas levett, a waiter in the Central Clnb, deposed tL»t Mrs. Patriok was hia eister •in - law. He had frequently assisted the, Patricks with money, clothes, and food and had told 'them "never to be in want if he could help them-. "-latterly, however, they had not applied to him. Mrs Patriok told him in the Hospital on Saturday that her husband had brought home id. worth of -"beer on "Friday night, bnt no brandy. She also said that she had had no food and no' fire on Friday, and- was in a fainting condition. The depositions of W. B. Patriok, taken

in ill' 1 Hnepittl on Situiday, hiving boen r. nil o\ cr, Mio Coroner briefly summed up, and eaid that if tlie jury were natisficd that Patrick uasnt the time of tlie fire in snoh a oonition th-it he could not take steps to save his wife and ohi.d from being bnrnt, thu9 lo*injr their lives, they (the jury) wonld be perfeotly justified in bringing in a verdict tantamount to. manslaughter. After a lengthy deliberation the jury returned a vordiot of Accidental Death in the case of both mother and child, and added the following riders :— (1) That if the man and wife had been sober, the jury oannot but think the fire would have been discovered sooner, and life might have been saved; and (2) that the efforts of Moroney and Hougham to get out the sufferers at considerable risk to themselves are worthy of all praise. ■