YOUNG BOY’S DEATH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 285, 30 October 1934, Page 8

YOUNG BOY’S DEATH

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

Per Press Association

AUCKLAND, Oct. 29. Suspicious circumstances surround the death of a Maori boy, Archie Toddy, aged 10, whose body was found in the Mangawara Stream, about 12 miles from Huntly. Medical evidence at the inquest was that the boy had been injured about the face and that he was dead before his head entered the water. The inquest was adjourned to enable a post-mortem examination to be made. • In the course of evidence, Thomas Barton, step-father of deceased, employed at a Public AVorks Department camp at Orini, said that about a week ago his wife became ill and went to reside with relatives at Huntly. About 6.30 a.m. on Saturday witness went to see his wife, leaving the children in bod. He told the eldest boy, Archie, to get the bread after breakfast. He usually carried the bread in a sugar bag and would cross a bridge over the Mangawara Stream. AA’hen witness returned from Huntly about noon the following day he was informed that the boy was missing and that the sugar bag containing the bread had been found on the bridge. There was no trace of the boy. AA'itness. was l>resent at Orini when a constable found the boy’s body in the stream. Deceased could not swim.

Dr Jamieson, of Huntly, said there was a lacerated wound of a left angle of the mouth and of the under-surface of both the upper and lower lips adjoining it. As far as external signs were concerned he had formed the opinion that the wound on the face was caused during life and that life was extinct when the head entered the water.