FARM HAND’S DEATH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 5 January 1940, Page 7

FARM HAND’S DEATH

FROM SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS [United Press Association) HAMILTON, 4th January. At an inquest to-day into the death of William Frederick Laird, aged 15 years a farm hand, Mr S. L. Paterson, returned a verdict that he died from gunshot wounds self-inflicted. Evidence was given by the child welfare • officer, Mr E. W. G. Thorpe, that Laird was a ward of the State, being committed at Hastings on breaking and entering charges. He was also before the Hastings Court on 18th September, 1935, on a charge of theft and was then placed under supervision for two years. He had been in several institutions, most of which he left after making complaints about treatment. He was later placed on a farm in the Auckland district and was subsequently returned as unsuitable because of his temperament. Witness judged Laird as temperamentally unsuitable in view of the number of situations he had had, the temper he had displayed and the fact that for a period he had in mind taking his own life, as was shown by a letter left just before the shooting. In this note Laird said he hoped that next time he would have a better chance and that he had been told he would have another six years under the Government welfare officer. Witness denied that he had ever told Laird that he would be under the care of the State till he was 21.