Unfenced Hot Pools in Maori Pas

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7196, 30 June 1933, Page 6

Unfenced Hot Pools in Maori Pas

CHILD SLIPS IN AND DIES. Per Press Association. ROTORUA, Last Night. Strong comments regarding the danger of unfcnccd hot pools in Maori pas and the necessity for providing proper safeguards by fencing were made by the coroner, Mr. W. L. Richards, at an inquest to-day into the death of a three-year-old Maori child, Richard Skipwith, who died following a fall into a hot pool at Ngapuna pa on June 20. In returning a verdict of death from shock as a result of scalds and suffocation, the coroner said he had visited the pool in question the morning after the fatality and it appeared to him to bo a veritable death trap. It was used by natives for washing and he had been informed that two other children had recently fallen into it, but fortunately had been rescued in time. It varied in temperature and was very slippery round the edges where the native women had been washing. There was an obligation upon those living in pas to protect small children by fencing in these dangerous pools. He was glad to say this particular pool had been fenced in since the tragedy.