MAORI WOMAN’S DEATH.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 238, 25 September 1911, Page 3

MAORI WOMAN’S DEATH.

THE INQUEST. An inquest was belli tit Clive on Saturday afternoon l>y Mr. S. E. McCarthy, Coroner, touching the death of a Maoti wonta’i Okeroa I-lcnc. otherwise known as Tana Boyd. To Mc.ai’ani-i Whairitiako, a Native i-hief at Matahiwi, and brother of the deceased, gave evidence to the effect tiiat his sister was 39 years old and had been married to a man mimed Boyd, who died last year. There had been no family. She had been ill for some time, and Dr. Barcroft, who bad attended her several times, said she was suffering from dropsy. Witness saw his sister on Sunday last, in Nurse Nairn's I’i-ivalc hospital at Hastings. Site had m;t hcc:i seen afterwards by the de,ctor, and died las- Wednesday morning. Dr Barcroft had refused to give a cert ilii ti! e as to the cause cf death because he had no' seen her for three weeks. A tohunga from Waikato, whoso name he did net know, was al the Alatabiwi jin. examined the deceased in Maori fashion, and treated her in the man mi- ho thought suitable to her con dition. The tohunga rubbed her body with olive oil ,and she took medicine inwardly given by Dr. Barcroft. The tohimga had given her no medicine to take inwardly.

Another Maori, also a relative of the deceased, gave simi’ttr evidence also stating that tho tohunga had given no medicine, but bad prayed over tho woman on sev oral occasions.

Dr. Harvey deposed that he had made a [io:;t morteiii examination of the body, a id bad found the heart affected ami considerable tuberculosis r.t the apex of the right lung. He attributed death io the cardiac conditio::, p .ssibly neieleratcd by the disease in the lung. The cardiac cimdition might have caused dropsy.

The Cormier returmd a verdict to the efleet that death had been cans cd by valvular disease of i’be heart accompanied J:y pericarditis, and added tho following rider.--‘‘ln my opin’ >n invalids and their relatives run grave risks in calling in tollimeyTS to attend the sick."