SINISTER RUMOURS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23595, 3 September 1938, Page 9

SINISTER RUMOURS

A WOMAN'S DEATH STRONG COMMENT BY CORONER <l'kr United I'uess association ) WELLINGTON, Sept. 2. False and malicious rumours disseminated by anonymous persons were hoTly condemned by the coroner Mr E C Gilbertson. at the inquest on Elsie Bell Mace, whose body was recovered from the harbour on August 26 after she had been missing-from her home at Wadestown since July 24. The old English ducking stool, he said, would be fitting Punishment for persons who spread such rurnours. which resulted in exhaustive police inauTries among the friends and relatives of the deceased with regard to rumours conveyed to the police which entailed much time and trouble to investigate and were proved to be utterly eround less. " I wish to state that the author who under the shield of anonymity disseminated malicious and sinister rumours as regards the motives and character of the relatives of the sub>ect of the coroner's inquiry is a contemptible coward." said Mr Gilbertson He or she stabs in the dark those whose anxiety and trouble'should be relieved rather than accentuated by lying innuendo, or the suggestion of evil intentions. It is regreltab e hat the old English punishment of the village ducking stool cannot be applied to them as a deterrent to all such irresponsible gossips. Their motto appears to be supressio veri and suggests falsi, fling enough mud and some of it is bound to stick " Giving his verdict Mr Gilbertson said- "The evidence before me although not absolute'v conclusive, indicates that the deceased had. arrived at a time of life when mental instability was not unusual, end I find that the deceased took her life by drowning herself in Wellington Harbour on July 24 in an excess of mental derangement." Ducking stools were used in England as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century. The person to be punished was placed in a strong chair and fastened in. The chair was attached to a see-saw arrangement, and when this was depressed the victim was immersed in the water