25

H.—3lb.

S. FINEB.

Sadie Finer, on her oath, saith. I live at 15 Church Street, Ponsonby, and am a married woman, the wife of Arthur Finer, saddle-manufacturer. I lived next door to the late Mrs. Chamberlain. I was on intimate terms with her for several months. I had opportunities of judging the state of her health before she entered St. Helens. I saw her every day. From my observation she was a strong healthy woman. She had a slight attack of influenza a few months before she went into the home. There was a slight cough with that —nothing to speak of. Influenza made her feel low and depressed, and I asked her if she felt in that condition why she did not see a doctor. She said she had never seen a doctor in her life, and she did not like the idea of going to one. That slight cough then was the only cough I saw on her. That left her a couple of months before she went into the home. I visited her on the eleventh day of her stay at St. Helens Home. [Witness is asked as to her conversation with Mrs. Chamberlain. Mr. May objects. Evidence admitted on same terms as before.] 1 asked Mrs. Chamberlain how she felt. She said she felt all right, but she could not understand why they would not allow her to sit up. She said the confinement was not bad, but she had been torn. She said the Matron had put in a few stitches. I asked here where she had been confined. She said she had been placed upon a board with a macintosh covering, and it was very hard to lie upon. She said she thought that that was where she got a severe chill. She told me that no chloroform was administered to her. She was in a room close to the balcony—l do not know its number. She complained about them using the room as a thoroughfare, as the noise disturbed her. She also told me she did not care for the food at all. She said that her breasts were sore, and they were putting hot fomentations on them. I noticed a few spots on her face —they were festering pimples. I, thought it was strange, as she always had a very clear complexion. I noticed a smell —an unpleasant one. I noticed it when she moved. I visited her once in the isolation ward. There I noticed that she looked rather weak and very I had not noticed the yellowness before. Gross-examined by Mr. Mays.] I did not notice anything about Mrs. Chamberlain's breathing before she went to the home. 1 did not see her at night. I knew she was nursing her mother for some time before she went to St. Helens. The only thing I saw her doing was taking a little food to her mother. That would be in the morning sometimes, and sometimes about midday. I did not see her early in the morning or in the evening. I did not notice her cough when I saw her in the home on the eleventh day. I did not notice her expectorate. I noticed no change in her before she went to the Hospital except that she was depressed and had liver complaint. Ido not think she had lost weight, but it would be hard to tell in her then condition. As to being depressed, she seemed as though she could not stand on her feet. She wanted to lie clown. A woman in her condition would want to do that any way. This continued for about three weeks. I saw her the morning she was admitted to the home. She then seemed very well. She did not complain of anything to me then. She said nothing to me at any time about her mother going away when she was so near her confinement. When I saw Mrs. Chamberlain on the eleventh day she only complained that she could not understand why she was not allowed to sit up. Re-examined by Mr. Skelton.] I disagree with the statement in the case-book that Mrs. Chamberlain had a nasty cough before she was admitted. She had no cough. She had not influenza a fortnight before she was admitted. She complained of the kidney-complaint two months before she was admitted. When I spoke of a liver-complaint before, I made a mistake—l meant a kidney-complaint. Louisa Hunt, on her oath, saith. I reside in Ponsonby Road, Auckland, with my husband, Sydney Clarence Hunt, who is a " Star " agent. I was introduced to Mrs. Chamberlain on the day her mother-in-law left for Sydney. That would be about a week before she entered St. Helens. I visited her there — once in the Hospital proper and two or three times in the isolation ward. I paid my first visit on the day when Mrs. Finer went, but had to come again, as I was rather late, and two were not allowed to see her on the one day. I went next day. [Witness is asked as to their conversation. Mr. Mays objects. Admitted on same terms as before.] I went up the outside steps, and saw Mrs. Chamberlain on the balcony. She was wheeled from the balcony into the little room. She coughed and put her hand to her head. She said the cough made her head ache. She reckoned she got the chill on the board. I said, "What is it like." She said, "They lay you on a table, and you have something to pull." She told me she did not Ike so many people going through her room. She also told me she did not care for the food. She told me on the first day I saw her that the Matron had put some stitches in her and had taken them out, and that the doctor had not seen her for three days after her confinement. I not-'ced a smell. She put her hand to arrange her clothes, and the smell was very bad. I have visited other ladies after their confinement in the same stage as Mrs. Chamberlain was in, but not in the Hospital, but I never noticed such a smell. I noticed that her stomach was very much swollen. I asked her if she had her bandages off. She said, " Yes." I noticed both the bad smell and the distention of the stomach the first day I saw her there. In the isolation ward I noticed that she was very weak and had a longing to get home all the time. She could not understand why she was not allowed to sit up. My last visit was the day before she died, but I would not be sure of this. She was then very weak. I noticed the usual smell. I noticed the same smell as I had noticed on mv first visit. Cross-examined by Mr. Mays.] I only met Mrs. Chamberlain about a week before she went to the home. I had known her mother-in-law before that. It was because I knew Mr. Chamberlain's mother that I visited his wife. There was no talk between me and Mrs. Chamberlain, sen., about Mrs. Chamberlain, jun. I did not know that Mrs. Chamberlain, sen., had protested agains* Mrs. Chamberlain, jun., nursing her own mother so long. When I saw the

4—H. 31b.