CHILDREN’S DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 26 September 1939, Page 6

CHILDREN’S DEATH

NATIVE SETTLEMENT TRAGEDY. (Per Press Association—Copyright). AUCKLAND, Sept. 23. The inquest into the deaths of six Maori children who died as a result of burns and shock received while sleeping in a hut which took fire at the Native development scheme settlement at. Turangi on August 22 was continued at Tokaanu before the District Coroner, Mr W. Thomas. The evidence of several Maoris who threw buckets of water on the lire and got the children out, showed that the parents, with an infant, slept in a separate hut. One boy was seen carrying firewood to the hut at 7 o’clock and the fire broke out at 8.30 o’clock.

Constable Thornton Smith said lie had examined the hut. About 10ft. from the fireplace there was a round hole burned through the wall to the outside. The hole was over the head of a bed. and he was of opinion that the seat of the fire was there. There was no chance of a spark from the fireplace causing the fire in tlie wall. He concluded that the fire was caused by the children playing with lighted sticks, and that a spark from these ignited the mattress next to the wall. The walls were covered with highly inflammable tar paper, and this apparently caught fire and carried the flames quickly throughout the interior, portions of the burning tar falling on the bed and the floor. The wood structure and the floor of the hut were only slightly scorched, but all the inflammable paper was burned off the walls and ceiling.

ThO Coroner returned a verdict that the children all died of shock following severe and extensive burns. A rider was added that the facts of the case would he brought under the notice of the Minister for Native Affairs, pointing out that huts in the native land development camps were being lined with highly inflammable material containing tar and likely to endanger the lives of the occupants in case of fire.

Three days after the fire the whole camp of 13 huts was deserted bv the Maoris, who have made it tapu, refusing to go near the place again. The camp, now a veritable deserted village lies about half a mile away from the Tongariro river/near the amvlors’ ullage of Turnngi.