A CHILD TRAGEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7505, 12 September 1902, Page 2

A CHILD TRAGEDY.

. 1,, » KILLED BY A FOUR-YEAR-OLD. Many pathetic stories have been told fin ; the Melbourne (Morgue, but the saddest of all was that-Telated when the City Coroner inquired in^to the circumstances surrounding the death /of a little girl. The child was killed by a blow from a playmate during a quarrel. The child who had so tragically caused her companion's death was a pretty, merry-looking little thing, nos quite four years old, and while the inquest was proceeding she kissed and fondled her mother, who sat, white-faced and agitated, drinking in every word of the evidence. The age of the child exonerates her from the prosecution which would have followed had she been a little older. - A witness of the occurrence, »ged eleven years, stated that the deceased child was playing with a younger child named Mary Fittell. Deceased hit MaryTittell on the left arm because she would not let Violet play with 'her. Mary Pittell had a stick in her hand, and hit Violet on the forehead. She fell down, and became insensible for a> few moments. According to the medical evidence death was indirectly due to the blow, the immediate cause being convulsions and meningitis. Death would not have resulted if the blow had not been struck. . . The Coroner summed up, pointing out that there was provocation for the blow, but thaWift any case the 'child who struck the blqliy was not «f an age to distinguish right, from wrong. The jury found a verdict accordingly, and the child who had innocently caused the fatality, and was quite unaware of the meaning of the proceedings, left the court with her mother.