TE ARAI FATALITY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11371, 2 September 1908, Page 5

TE ARAI FATALITY.

An ' inquest concerning the death of James Cockery Avas held at Te Arai yesterday, before Mr 1 W. E. Akroyd, J.P., acting coroner, and the following jury : Wm. M. Kirk .(foreman), F. James, E. B. Roberts, T. H. Pardoe, T. Lynn, and R. Preston. ' . Sergeant Hutton conducted the inquest. Dr. Coker stated he examined deceased, and found, all the organs more or less diseased, and oil and turpentine m the throat, the back of tlie tongue blackened, and the throat and windpipe very much inflamed. The liniment had irritated the glottis and set . up. spasms, and led to difficulty m breathing, aY phyxia and heart failure causing death: The liniment produced would cause the above resulte. , , To the foreman : The discoloration was due to discomfiture and asphyxia. To a juryman : The liniment might have poisoned deceased if it had entered his stomach, but it was taken- by mistake, and went down the glottis. The organs Avere very much, diseased. The liniment Avould have caused the same effect m a healthy man, but might not have killed him. Had someone been, present to relieve deceased his life might have been saved. John Harold Kane, chemist, deposed that deceased brought a prescription] to him from Dr. Reeve on Friday last. Witness supplied .the prescriptions, whicli were m the bottles produced. No. 1 bottle contained turpentine, camphor liniment, and acetic acid, which he believed, if drank by mistake, would produce the effects as stated' by the doctor. The acetic acid would act as a corrosive. No. 2 bottle contained a mixture Avhich woidd not cause the symptoms described. The medicines Avere put up. m different makes of bottles', so tliat no mistake might be made. De'eeaseduonly told witness he Avas suffering iri?m :sciatica, which the liniment was Xovi '. Rangi Jones staled that he last saw deceased alive on Saturday morning, between 10 and 12 o-'clock. Robert Preston stated be Avas the nearest neighbor to deceased. He saAV him about on Saturday or Sunday. In consequence of AA r hat a little Maori girl told him about 8 o'clock on Monday morning, witness went to^ deceased's whare. and found him lying dead m his bed. Witness then informed the police. Deceased was about 54 years of age, and bad resided from 25 to 30 years m the district. Deceased A\-as living with a Maori woman, and had a groAvn-up family of two sons and one daughter. Constable Dandy stated that on arrival at deceased's whare shortly after the receipt of the information, *he found him m bed lying on his side, Avith his head over the edge of the bed. There Avas froth coming from his mouth and nose. Witness- found No. 1 bottle on a chair, within easy reach of the bed. Bottle No. 2 was on the opposite side of the whare, on a table. Witness had been informed that deceased could neither read nor write. The jury returned a verdict that decensed met his death by misadventure, taking liniment m place of medicine.