ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 140, 20 July 1914, Page 8

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

Press Association. PECULIAR ACCIDENT. GISBORNE, July 20. Fred Hansen, a settler at Motu, was carrying a pea rifle, which had been taken to pieces and wrapped in an overcoat. On dismounting from his horse he throwe the parcel carrying the pea rifle on the verandah; the rifle discharged, and the bullet entered the left side of his abdomen. He was brought to the hospital. DEATH FROM BURNS. DUNEDIN, July 19. A man named John, or James Dunnett died at the Dunedin Hospital yesterday as the result of burns received about a week ago at Owaka. He was a comparative stranger in the district, and is supposed to have come from Hastings. On Friday week he walked into the house of a neighbour, Mr John Dooley, at Owaka, from a tent in which he v was living, and complained of being v burnt. His employer, Mr B. Morris, and Mr DooLey had him attended to by a doctor, and he was sent on to the hospital here, where he lay till his death. An inquest will be held on Tuesday. MISSING BODY FOUND. GORE, July 20. The body of John C. Carwell, who was drowned in the Mataura River on Itfay 23, was found yesterday four miles below Mataura. SUDDEN DEATHS. j A man named Henry Lane, aged 65, a resident- of Fitzgerald Street, St. Albans, died suddenly while attending the evening service of the Baptist Church, Westminster Street. He suddenly collapsed while rising to join in the singing. Mr T. A. B. Bailey held an inquest on the body of James Woods, at Courtenay, on Saturday. Woods, who was a farm labourer, died suddenly at lunch on Friday. Dr J. H. Simpson stated that the post mortem examination showed that death was due to fatty 1 degeneration of the heart, and a verdict ! was returned in accordance with the j medical evidence. The police received a message yester- [ day from the constable in charge at Rakaia, stating that a man named "Charles Todd, 60 years of age, and of eccentric habits, was found deauin his tent on Sunday morning. An inquest will be held. ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. Whilst the Waiau and Hanmer footJball teams were holding a smoke concert at the Jollie's Pass Hotel on Saturday evening to celebrate the match played between them that day, the entertainment was suddenly brought to a? stop by the entrance in the passage "of a man covered with blood, who announced to the startled gathering, ''Boys, I've done it." The licensee at once dispatched a messenger to Hanmer by motor, and Dr Ely Roe was brought back to attend to the man, who was found to haye cut his throat from ear to ear, without severing thie windpipe or any of the main arteries however. Twenty-four stitches were needed to close the wound ?i „ and the man was put to bed under a police guard. Yesterday he was said to be out of danger. The man, whose name is John Ritson, is a married man, though living apart from his' wife, and came from Ashburton, where he followed his occupation of house paintej. Lately he had been employed as a labourer on Mr Hanmer Atkinson's Woodbank station. Ritson said he had determined to end his Jife, and* after cutting his throat with- a razor had walked out into the yard, but finding he had dropped the razor he walked back into the hotel, where his ghastly appearance brought the smoke concert to an abrupt con-1 elusion.