Obituaries Australia

An unfortunate case of drowning occured yesterday at Upper Hawthorn when Edith Lois Cato, six years old, daughter of Mr Fred Cato of Messrs Moran and Cato, Tooronga-road Auburn was accidentally drowned in a fishpond in the grounds attached to her parents residence. The little one’s birthday was kept up on Wednesday and amongst numerous presents she received were two toy watering-cans; deceased an her sister Unice, aged 4 took the watering cans yesterday morning to water their flowers; unobserved by the gardeners or others about the place they climbed the stiles over two netted and barbed wire fences to get to the fish pond which is five or six feet deep with a muddy bottom; the deceased fell in and the screams of the younger child attracted the attention of the gardener who ran to the place and got the body out as soon as possible when every effort was made at resuscitation but without success. Mr Lillies M.R.C.S. of Armadale and Mr Willis M.B. of Malvern were speedily summoned but life was extinct on their arrival. Later in the day, Dr Cole, district coroner held an inquest at the residence of the parents and found that the child was accidentally drowned in a pond and that no blame was attachable to anyone.