DEATH FROM HEART FAILURE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 6

DEATH FROM HEART FAILURE

INQUEST INTO OHAWE FATALITY. . OLD MAN’S FALL OVER CLIFF. Death from heart failure caused by 3 falling down a cliff at the Ohawe beach . on Monday was the verdict of the coro- . ner, Mr, R. S. Sage, at Hawera yesterday, when, an inquest was held into the ' death of Charles Richard Kelly, aged 06 ’ years, who was found dead at the loot of ; a.2ooft. cliff. The coroner added that , the evidence was not sufficient to indicate that the fall was purely acci- ! dental, although it tended in that direction. Sergeant J. Henry, who conducted proceedings for the police, said Kelly was a tally clerk employed by the Hawera County Council and had acted as caretaker of the Ohawe Domain. Mr. G. J. Bayley appeared for the relatives. Roy Hayward, a contractor of Normanby, said he carted metal from the Ohawe beach and had known Kelly for some years. At about 6.45 a.m. on Monday he went to ’the beach for the purpose of commencing his work, carting metal. His father and a Native had arrived only a few minutes before and when witness reached . the beach he noticed what looked like a pair of boots protruding from the sand about ten chains from the road. He walked along the beach and identified the body as that of Kelly. He then called his father and instructed his brother to communicate with the police. At high tide the sea reached the cliff near which the body was discovered. On the previous night it had then high tide about midnight, but When found the clothing on the body was dry. It was Kelly's duty to keep tally of the metal that passed his whare. Witness had often seen him peering over the cliff watching operations on the beach and the last time he had seen Kelly alive was about dinnci’ time on the previous Saturday, when ho appeared to be in his usual state. To Mr. Bayley: On Monday morning there had been no work done on the beach prior to the arrival of witness’ father and the Native. Kelly kept tally not of the metal removed from ' the beach, but only of that which passed his whare. The only injuries on the body were . small superficial abrasions, said Dr. R. G. B. Sinclair, who examined the body at the morgue. After examination he formed the opinion that death had taken, place only a few hours , previously and in view of the'circumst'ances surrounding the case he believed that a fall over the cliff, for a man of Kelly’s age, would have been sufficient to have caused death. The shock of striking three ledges in his descent could also have caused death. The injuries were much more consistent with a slide than with a direct drop. It was possible that Kelly might have been dizzy through his action of crawling. ( through the fence near the edge of the cliff and then straightening. • From the appearance of the body there were absolutely no suspicious circumstances. The actual cause of death might have been heart failure owing to the shock of the fall.

William Hayward, a contractor of Normanby, said he was on the beach last Monday about 6.30 a.m. Some time later his attention was drawn to a body lying at the foot of the cliffs about ten chains from the road. He saw marks on the cliff where the body had slipped. Ho had not known Kelly to have been on the cliff at 6.30 a.m. before. He was usually noticed about 7.30 or 8 a m., but he might have looked over and the workers on the beach have been unaware of it. Kelly was a “little tottery” on his feet.

To view operations on the beach it was necessary for Kelly to approach within two or three feet of the edge.

William James Meyer said he resided at.-the Ohawe beach and had been speaking to Kelly about 5.30 p.m. last Saturday. The following' day witness was again on the Domaip about 5.30 p.m. and saw Kelly sitting on his whare reading a newspaper. The blind of the whare was up but witness' Aid not speak to Kelly., On Monday morning witness went to the domain about 6.30 a.m. to milk his cows and noticed that the blind ho had seen up the previous evening was pulled down. Ho -had often noticed Kelly looking over the cliffs at the beach. So far as witness knew he was the last person to have seen Kelly alive, Kelly had never suggested that he was likely to take his own life. He had often noticed Kelly looking over the cliff and he was nearly always through the fence. Constable AV. R. Thomason said he received the telephone message that the body of a man had been found at Ohawe beach. With Constable Mullan he visited the scene and examined the body. There was a drop of 40 feet from the top of the cliff to a sloping ledge and then another drop of about 80 feet sloping outwards and finally a sheer drop ■of about 70 feet. At the foot of the last drop there was a large piece of papa, about 15 feet high, and on top of that was a lot of loose clay. The body was lying on the sand- about two feet out from the piece of papa. He searched the top of the cliff and footmarks in the long grass were distinct. There was no sign of any struggle on the top of the cliff. He had noticed marks, similar to footmarks, on a small ledge eight or ten inches lower than the rest of the bank. There was a five-wire barbed wire fence about twelve foot from Hie edge. i Near where Kelly had fallen over the bank there was a small red flag. Mr. Hayward had informed him that the flag was put there by Kelly as 'he believed it a dangerous spot. The small ledge on which he had seen footmarks was large enough only for two feet. Similar evidence was given by Constable P. J. Mullan,

Recalled by the coroner, Roy Hayward corroborated Constable Thomascn’s remarks concerning the red flag.