NGATEA TRAGEDY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3139, 10 July 1942, Page 5

NGATEA TRAGEDY

DEATH OF SMALL BABY FAMILY SLEPT ON HAY CORONER’S STRONG COMMENT A revelation that four people a husband, wife and two young children—were sleeping on hay in one room of a five-roomed cottage alt Ngatea, ’ Hauraki Plains, *-was made at an inquest held before the Thames coroner, Mr W. Bongard, on Tuesday. The inquest was held following the death early on Sunday morning of Mira Henare Hikaiti, seven-weeks-old son of Henare Paora and Annie Hikaiti. The coroner returned a verdict as opined in the medical evidence, of death from congestion of the lower portion of both

lungs. > The child’s father stated, in evidence that he was a farmhand, sharemilking at Ngatea. He had one other child, about two years of age. Deceased was a full-blooded Maori.

He said the baby had developed a cold about four days ago, and described the course of what both parents had supposed to be a minor ailment. He had heard the child cry in the early morning of Sunday, but shortly before daylight had found that it was dead. That would be about half an hour after he had heard the cry, he thought. Under cross-examination from the coroner, Hikaiti stated that he and his wife and the two children slept on hay, with some blankets, in the centre of the room. The house had • five rooms in all.

Witness said he had been employed by the Public Works Department, .Paeroa, at 19s 6d a day before going to Ngatea. He had loft that Job to take up sharemilking at Ngatea. He agreed with the coroner that the winter was a particularly difficult time for sharemilkers, the cows being dried off.

Gave Baby No Medicine

Annie Hikaiti, the dead child s mother, said the infant had developed a cold about three days ago. She had not considered it bad ehough to have it attended to by a doctor or to _call in a district nurse. She had applied olive oil, but had given the baby no medicine. She admitted that all four of the family had slept on a bundle of hay on the floor of one room. Asked by .the coroner why this should- have been the case, she said they had no

money. titioner, of Thames, gave evidence m titioner ,of Thames, gave evidence m connection with the results of . a post-mortem investigation. He said that in his opinion death had been caused by congestion of the lungs. Mr Bongard told the husband that the least he could have done, if they had no furniture at all and no money with wh’ich to buy any, was to have attempted to make some makeshift articles. A cot for the baby might have been made, for instance, . out of a couple of packing cases from'the store. '.

“There is no excuse for not giving

a sick child medical attention,” added the coroner. “You have a duty to do in looking after your children, and you must make some provision for them.

“It is definitely wrong that a young couple with two children should be sleeping under such conditions.”