CHILD AND YOUNG WOMAN KILLED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16748, 1 June 1922, Page 5

CHILD AND YOUNG WOMAN KILLED.

A LEAP TO DEATH. (Per Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 31. A tragedy occurred a few minutes after noon at the Strand Arcade, Miss Ina Mary Nalder, twenty-five, a clerk in the Pacific* Cable Board’s office, hurling a. four-year-old girl over the balustrade on the top floor and then jumping to her death 70 feet below. The child, Betty Nalder, was an adopted daughter of the woman’s mother, who died about a year ago. Upon her mother’s death Miss Naldier took upon herself the duty of. looking after the child, to whom she was greatly attached. The child was being treated at the hospital for a broken arm, and Miss. Nalder toi.k her out for the day. At the inquest the following letter, written by deceased to the Coroner, and found in a handbag, was Tend : “This is to state I am so unhappy I cannot live any longer. T am not of temporary unsound mind, as the papers are always in the habit of saying. I wish my money, namely, £IOOO invested with a firm in Nelson, and approximately £l5O in the Auckland Savings Bank, as well a.s any salary due to me. to go the Auckland Hospital. None of my relatives have over cared for me or taken any interest in me, therefore they have no right to the money, and I do not wish any of them to come near my remains or take any interest in my affairs whatever. No one will

A witness produced a. letter written to his daughter, received at noon that day, too late to avert the tragedy, though the police and Cable Board were telephoned to immediately. The letter stated that Miss Nalder felt keenly that a* friend of hers became engaged to another girl, and she had nothing to live for. She indicated her intention of committing suicide and taking the child Betty with her. The Coroner returned a verdict to the effect that the deed was done while Miss Nalder tva-s of unsound mind.

A young woman employed in a shop in the Arcade had a narrow escape from injury. She was buttoning a glove on her outstretched hand, and the child struck her hand, falling at her feet. Before she had recovered from the shook the woman’s body fell a few feet away.