MAORI BOY’S DEATH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19943, 30 October 1934, Page 6

MAORI BOY’S DEATH

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES By TelegrapD Press Association AUCKLAND, October 29. Suspicion surrounds the death of a Maori boy, Archie Teddy, aged 10, whose body was found in the Mangawara stream, about 12 miles from Huntly. Medical evidence at the inquest was that the boy had been injured about the face and that he was dead before his head entered the water. The inquest was adjourned to enable a post-mortem examination to be made. In the course of evidence, Thomas Barton, stepfather of the boy, and who is employed at the public works camp at Orini, said that about a week ago his wife had become ill and went to reside with relatives at Huntly. About 6.30 a.m. on Saturday witness went to see his wife, leaving the children in bed. He told the eldest boy, Archie, to get the bread after breakfast. He usually carried the bread in a sugar bag and would cross the bridge over the Mangawara stream. When witness returned from Huntly about 12 a.m. the following day he was informed that the boy was missing, and that a sugar bag containing bread had been found on the bridge. There was no trace of the boy. Witness was present at Orini when a constable found the boy’s body in the stream. The boy could not swim. Dr. Jamieson, of Huntly, said there was a lacerated wound on the left angle of the mouth and on the under surface of both the upper and lower lips adjoining it. So far as external signs were concerned, he formed the opinion that the wound on the face was caused during life, and that life was extinct when the head entered the water.