A CHILD BURNED TO DEATH.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 3315, 13 May 1885, Page 3

A CHILD BURNED TO DEATH.

(By Telegraph.) Christchuboh, May 12. A sad occurrence happened at Shirley, three and a half miles from Christchurch this afternoon. The information to hand is to the effect that the parents, a laborer, named Briggg and his wife, left the tworoomed cottage they occupied about 10 a.m. Their three children, the eldest a boy aged 4 years and 3 months remained behind. The door was latched but not locked, and a coal fire was left burning m the grate. Mrs Briggs returned at 2 p.m., and on entering the house found it full of smoke. On the floor, lay the eldest child dead, his body charred almost to a cinder, while beside him lay the youngest child, a boy 11 months old, severely burnt about tho lower part of the body. The third child, two years old, was standing m a corner of the room uninjured. Mrs Briggs screamed for assistance, and Mr R. R. P. Hill, who lives close by, came, and after rendering what help ho could, rode off and fotohed Dr Townend, by whose advice the infant was removed to the Hospital, where he lies m a precarious state. A hole a foot m diameter was burnt m the floor where the body of the dead child was lying, and a smallor hole near by. It is supposed that his clothes caught fire at the grate, and that he rolled about tho room till he died. The deceased's name is James Joel Briggs.