CORONER ATTACKS INSTITUTE HEAD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19108, 28 June 1930, Page 11

CORONER ATTACKS INSTITUTE HEAD.

INQUEST HELD ON BOY WHO FELL EIGHTY FEET. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 28. Pointed questions were asked by the Coroner, Mr F. K. Hunt, at the inquest on Lester Selwyn Gardiner, twenty-one years, who fell down a light well at the Y.M.C-A. yesterday. Dr J. G. Stewart said that Gardiner was suffering from a nervous breakdown and loss of memory. Witness attempted to house the youth at the Bible Training Institute for a few days until his father arrived from the south, but the principal flatly refused. The Y.M.C.A. accepted him and did everything possible. The youth had no suicidal tendenfcies. Thomas Walker, who was looking after Gardiner, said that the latter attempted to get out of the window. Witness overpowered him, but despite his efforts, Gardiner subsequently went through the window and fell" 80 feet. The secretary of the Bible Training Institute said that Gardiner came there on March 1. When the youth returned from his holidays last Saturday he said that he was feeling tired and went to bed. He was treated by a doctor and on Wednesday went t 6 stay with an aunt at Bayswater, being later put into a nursing home at Cheltenham, but he broke through a window and got into the sea. On Wednesday he was taken to the Y.M.C.A. by Dr Stewart. The Coroner: Why didn’t you look after him? Witness: There are 25 men and 30 women in our establishment and I didn’t think it fair to them. The Coroner: He was one of your students, yet all the responsibility for him was left on the doctor. The honorary physician to the Institute said that Gardiner needed the attention of a trained nurse. The Coroner: You never tried to do anything nor took the slightest interest in the boy. Witness: He was under another medical man. The father of Gardiner, who arrived from Gore this morning, said that he was sorry that the Bible Institute had not informed him of his son’s condition earlier. He publicly thanked Dr Stewart for all he had done. A verdict was returned that death was caused through injuries due to a fall when temporarily deranged.