BURNED TO DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22107, 13 May 1935, Page 8

BURNED TO DEATH

MAORI BOY'S FATE TRAGEDY OF THE NIGHT FIRE IN CAMP WHARE COMPANION'S NARROW ESCAPE [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] TE KUITI. Saturday A Maori boy named Nerihana Tepu was fatally burned late on Thursday night, when a whare in which he was sleeping, about 1| miles from the Matai camp in the Mangapehi district, caught fire. The boy died at 9 o'clock yesterday morning. The boy, who was about seven years of age, was sharing the whare as sleeping quarters with another boy named Wakawhenua Kakenga, who is about five years of age. The whare was about 20 feet from a cookhouse, in which Tepu's foster-father, Kakenga Kingi, who slept in the whare, and other Maoris sat round a large fire. Attempts at Rescue The two boys went to bed about 9 o'clock. At about 11 o'clock the Maoris in the other building heard the roaring of flames. Rushing out they found the whare ablaze. The elder boy's foster parents found the younger boy outside the whare door. Kingi pushed the door open, but the heat was too intense to allow him to enter. He rushed round to the side of the whare, where the boy's bed was situated, and burst a hole through the wall. In the meantime the elded boy had got out of bed and had staggered out of the door, falling into the arms of a Maori woman. He was wrapped in a blanket and taken to the cookhouse, where oil was placed on the burns which he had received on his face, arms, back, neck, chest and hips. At the time the seriousness of the burns was not realised. Delay to Message At 6.30 yesterday morning the boy became worse and a message was despatched with a view to informing the police and obtaining medical assistance. However, the message was delayed and in the meantime the boy died suddenly from shock. It is thought that the fire started from sparks from the fire in the cookhouse. The whare was partly a tent and partly composed of punga and light was provided by a hurricane lamp. In view of the cold night the fire in the cookhouse was a very large one. The younger boy received slight burns on the top of his head. / A policeman proceeded to the district to-day, accompanied by the coroner, Mr. R. N. Somerville, for the purpose of holding an inquest.