TOLAGA BAY TRAGEDY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19522, 3 January 1938, Page 2

TOLAGA BAY TRAGEDY

16-YEAR-OLD BOY'S DEATH FOUND HANGING TO TREE (Special to the Herald.) TOLAGA BAY, this day. A gloom was cast over Tolaga Bay on Friday afternoon when the residents learned that the body of 16-year-old Kenneth Alfred King, son of Mr. G. W. King, engineer to the Uawa County Council, had been found hanging to a tree near the racecourse. At the inquest on New Year's Day before the acting coroner, Mr. J. P. Guthrie, J.P., a verdict was returned that the boy had died through a dislocated neck caused through hanging while in a depressed state of mind. He was a bright and intelligent boy and, it was stated, had never before shown suicidal tendencies. At the time of the tragedy the boy's parents were on a motor tour of the North Island and King was staying at the residence of Mr. A. ! Norris, Paremata road, Tolaga Bay. He had been employed as a messenger in the Tolaga Bay Post Office and on Thursday morning it was thought that he left as usual for work, taking his lunch atid riding his bicycle. He cycled in thf direction of the Post Office, but it was later thought that lie must have doubled back and gone towards the racecourse. The lad's failure to return home by '7.30 p.m. caused Mr. Norris anxiety and when an inquiry was made at the Post Office he found that the boy had not been at work all day. Constable W. H. Bradley wjas communicated with and inquiries were made as to the whereabouts of King. He found that the last person to see King alive had been a young friend who had been talking to the deceased near the racecourse at a a.m. on Thursday. On Friday at 2 p.m. the manager of Paroa station, Mr. D. G. S. Macdonald, found the boy hanging by his belt from a willow tree near the racecourse. It was thought that King had been dead for fully 24 hours when found. The jury at the inquest was as follows.—Messrs. O. G. James, foreman, N. B. Smith, H. R. Irving, and C. F. Milne. The funeral was held in Tolaga Bay on Saturday afternoon and a large attendance of residents gathered at the graveside. The Rev. N. F. Benham conducted the service.