NO FOUL PLAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19701, 5 August 1938, Page 7

NO FOUL PLAY

POLICE CONCLUSION WATIIAU BAY INQUIRY MAORI CHILD'S DEATH Investigations made by Detective Belton at Waihau Bay in connection with the death of a two-year-old Maori female child, concerning which rumours of a serious nature had gained currency, have revealed nothing upon which suspicion of foul play could be founded, stated Inspector G. B. Edwards, officer in charge of the Gisborne police district, this afternoon. An inspection of the remains of the child, and an interogation of the persons in whose charge the child had been placed prior to her heath, were among the first steps in the investigation, said the inspector. Interviews with a number of natives of the district, apart from those most closely concerned with the child, had strengthened the evidence in sppport of the infant's death having occurred from natural causes. In their statements to Detective Belton, the mother and adopted mother had given apparently satisfactory accounts of their treatment of the child, and these statements were being checked up, as also were other details of information associated with the case. Wet and boisterous weather had hampered the detective in his inquiries, Inspector Edwards added, the flooded state of the rivers and the difficulty of negotiating sections of the road having restricted his movements about •the district.