CORONER'S INQUEST.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3576, 17 March 1886, Page 3

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An inquest on too body o£ George Honry Prattloy, eon oE EU and Jana Prattley, who waa found dead m the yard at the reo* of the farm house, Arowhonua, on Monday, waa held at the parents' residence, yesterday morning, beforo J. S. Beswick, Esq.., Coroner for the district. The following were sworn m as a jury :— Messrs Austin (foreman), Hart, Fly, Nicholas, Edgworth, and Bealey, and after they had viewed the body, ovidonca was taken as follows ;—

Jane Prattley : On Monday evening, about 6.30, 1 sent the deceased to put a mare m the yard for me, and desired him to leavo her there. After some ten minutes' time I went out of the house to the yard, and found my boy with his head fixed between two bara of the gate leading to tho yard, tho rest of his body lying across the other bars. Ho was then quite dead. I called Mr Smith, and he took the boy from the gate, and I then immediately sent for Dr Singleton, who after making an examination, pronounced lifo to be extinct. To the Coroner i The boy had ofton closed the gate previous to the accident. A day or two ago his father had accidently broken the wire which did dnty as a hinge at tho top of the gate, and I think the deceased waß not awaro the wire was broken. William Smith, of Milford, said : I was m Prattley's yard on Monday evening, and walked out past the gate at which tho accident took place. I had gone about 7 chainß from the house when Mrß Prattloy called out to me. I immediately returned to the yard, and found deceased fixed m the gato, one bar of which pressed tightly on the back of Wb head and another held him firmly undor the lower jaw. The deceased's head was bo securely jammed between the bars that I had to twist his body completely round before I could extricatohim. The gate had not been closed at all ; it seemed to have canted right over on deceased. It would be about livo minutes from the time I left the yard till I returned. As Dr Singleton had been called away on urgent business, the Coroner decided next to hear the evidence of John Morton, the constable m charge of the Temuka district. Constable Morton said : At a quarter to seven on Monday evening I received information of the accident, and on reaching the farmhouse I foundDr Singleton examining the deceased, who, he said, had then been dead sometime. There wa3 an extensive scalp wound on tho back of deceased's head, which extended well on to the crown, but there was scarcely any blood about the wound. Tho doctor could not tell me whether the causo of death wa3 fracture of the neck, or suffocation. The Coroner thought the jury would have no difficulty m arriving at a verdict, for there was no doubt that the gate must havo fallen forward and killed tho boy. The jury after a very ' short consultation returned a verdict of " Accidental death."