A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 23353, 24 August 1939, Page 3

A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

INQUEST OPENED ON MAORI CHILDREN EVIDENCE OF MOTHER [Per United Press Association.] TAUMARUNUI, August 23. The inquest was opened on the six young Maori children who suffered fatal burns in a fire in their parents’ house. The mother of the children, in evidence, said her husband was deaf and dumb. The family occupied two huts on the settlement, and it bad been the practice for the six oldest children to sleep on the floor of the whare and for her husband and herself and infant child to retire to the other whare a short distance away. The building where the children slept consisted of only one room and a fireplace, with a sack in front to stop the smoke. She put the children to bed, and she and her husband and infant retired to the other whare. Later she heard shouts and found the children’s whare in flames. They got the children out, but all were severely burnt. The district nurse treated the children for the burns and called the Tanmaramii ambulance. They sot out for Taumamnui, 70 miles distant, in two ears with the children, and mot the ambulance on the way. She had since heard that a neighbour saw the eldest hoy taking more firewood into the whare after the parents had returned. She thought the hoy must have built up the fire and that some had fallen out while they were asleep, igniting the building. She had always regarded the fireplace as unsafe ami took the greatest care. There wore only about two feet from the fireplace to the woodwork near the hearth, mid nothing to protect it from falling embers.

The inquest was adjourned sine die