CHILD DROWNED IN GUTTER

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1933, Page 7

CHILD DROWNED IN GUTTER

COMMENT BY THE CORONER. SOME EVIDENCE OF NEGLECT. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Sept. 1. “There is something radically wrong with our civilisation when people of this type can bring children into the world. The sooner the matter is tackled by our legislators the better it will be for the future of the race.” These remarks were passed by Mr. E. D. Mosley,, coroner, at an inquest into the death of Annie Cecelia Pearce, the three-months-old daughter of Mrs. Annie .Cecelia Pearce. The child was drowned in a gutter in St. Asaph Street on August 4. Evidence was given that the child fell face downwards in the gutter, in which there was an inch of water, when the mother took an epileptic fit. “The evidence shows that Mrs. Pearce was never in a fit physical state to be the mother of the child, being subject to epileptic fits,” said the coroner. Some of it also shows that the child had been neglected. However, that was not the cause of death. After all is said, one cannot blame the mother for what happened, but one. can blame her for having a child, and I cannot understand .how any woman could neglect a child of her own in this way.” Mr. Mosley returned a formal verdict of death by asphyxiation through drowning.