ROTORUA TRAGEDY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 236, 18 September 1934, Page 1

ROTORUA TRAGEDY

Need For Fencing Hot Pools

YOUNG WOMAN’S DEATH

By Telegraph—Press Association. ROTORUA, September 17

“The death of this young girl again draws pointed attention to the necessity for tho proper fencing of these dangerous pools. Tragedies of this kind are becoming too frequent, which indicates how essential it is for precautionary measures to be taken without delay. It is to be hoped that tho authorities controlling this area will take immediate steps to enclose all these danger spots within their jurisdiction with the object of avoiding similar tragedies in future. “I understand that tho pool adjacent to the scene of * this unfortunate fatality is a very popular bathing place. If that is so the public should realise that deviating from the footpaths after darkness set in for the purpose of a bath, however pleasant, involves too great a risk, particularly in the absence of lighting facilities,’ said the Coroner, Mr W. L. Richards, to-day, in returning a verdict of accidental death in the ease of Nona Pettit, a 20-ycar-old Rotorua girl, who died from shock caused by severe scalds through falling into a hot pool in the Kuirau Reserve on the evening of September 13.

The evidence showed that the girl went to tho reserve shortly after 9 o'clock with a companion for the purpose of bathing in a largo "arm pod. She left her clothes some distance away and while passing along a narrow- path between two smaller pools accidentally slipped and fell into one of them. Sho was admitted to the Rotorua Hospital and died tho following morning from the effects of shock and scalding.