THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT RIVERHEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7593, 24 March 1886, Page 5

THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT RIVERHEAD.

CORONER'S INQUEST. An inquest was held on Monday at the Riverhead Hotel, before the District Coroner, Mr. A. Bonnor, and a jury of six resident settlers of the neighbourhood, on the body of Mary Howley, who had been living with a man named Alfred W. Slator, a tjumdigger, at Barker's Point on the Waitemata. Constable Foreman, of Helensville, conducted the inquity. Evidence went to prove that Slator and the deceased went to Riverhead on Saturday evening in a boat, a distance of about one and a-half miles, and returned home again about half-past eight o'clock p.m. in the same boat. Neither of them were in the least degree intoxicated. Both arrived safely home shortly after nine o'clock p.m. Slator opened the door of the house, having had the key. On entering the house he said he was tired and would go to bed. Deceased remarked that she was going out for a little, Slator fell asloep, not awaking until about six o'clock. He was astonished at not finding deceased in bed or at home, but thought that she had gone to visit a neighbour. Shortly after a neighbour (who had slept at the hotol) riding homo on Sunday morning, saw the bo ly of a woman floating in the river, halfway between Riverhead and Marker's Point. He examined the body, and was satisfied that it was that of Mary Howley, his nearest neighbour. He toon acquainted Slator of the fact, but the poor man was bo unhinged that he could not go in search of the body. However, two or three Hcttlers removed the eame to the Point house, and notice having been given to the Coroner, the inquest was held on Monday at the Riverhead Hotel, when, after hearing all the evidence which could be brought in the case, the jury returned the following verdict: "That the deceaeed Mary Howley committed suicide by drowning horself in the Waitemata river on Saturday night or Sunday morning, the 21st day of March, deceased being at the same time of unsound mind from mental depression, caused by disease of long standing."—[Own Correspondont.]