BURNED TO DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19731, 2 September 1927, Page 14

BURNED TO DEATH.

A LONE PIONEER'S END. WOMAN 95 YEARS OF AGE. Airs. Bridget MeCarney, aged 95 years, one of the best-known residents of the Bathurst district, New South Wales, lost her life in a fire, which recently destroyed her home, at Dark Corner, once a famous, but now a deserted mining village. The old lady was last seen alive late in the afternoon, when a neighbour's child visited her home to cut wood and cairy water. She was quite well and jovial when the child left. About 6.30 o'clock the following morning a settler residing in the locality, was surprised to notice that the house was missing from the landscape. Investigations showed that the six-roomed weatherboard residence had been reduced to ashes. Among the blackened ruins the remains of the old lady were found. It is believed that Mrs. MeCarney left her bed during the night and that a candle or spark from the open grate ignited the building. She went to Dark Corner 60 years ago with her husband to work on the gold diggings. Though her husband died there many years ago she lived on alone. For many years she assisted her husband in mining operations.