ACCIDENTS & DEATHS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXII, Issue 8258, 26 December 1911, Page 3

ACCIDENTS & DEATHS.

P*»r Press Association.

LONDON, Decemher 24. Water burst into a pitshaft at Wigan (Lancashire). Eighty - : seven j miners were cut off. Twenty clung to steam pipes and resisted the rush of water. The rest were helplessly washed past the cage. Some of these climbed the' pumping pipes, and were hauled to the surface. There were many remarkable escapes. Men wading breast high were rescued after twelve hours. One old man died. Whitaker, an electrician, was electrocuted on the stage of a girls' school at Rochester. He was superintending th© limelight during an operetta, and while handling an arc lamp his wet boots touched the regulator. WELLINGTON, December 25. The body of Cyril Aston, aged 27, who has been missing since December 7, was found at Karori yesterday, with a bullet wound in the head. At an inquest held to-day a verdict was returned to the effect that deceased j died from a bullet wound in the head, but there was no evidence to show how it was inflicted. CHRISTCHURCH, December 26. Shortly after 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon a railway accident occurred at the,eastern end of.the railway platform at Lyttelton, but fortunately it was not attended by any serious results. The 1.25 p.m. train from Christchurch brought down a number of carriages to be' set aside for th© following clay's ferry train, and on arrival at the port an engine was attached to them and they were detached from th© main train and taken some distance up th© railway yard. By some oversight the points were not altered, with th© result that the carriages ran with full force on to the train waiting to leave for Christchurch at two o'clock. Th© concussion alarmed a number of the' passengers, who were somewhat shaken, but no- one was hurt. Th© platforms and buffers of three of the carriages were badly twisted and broken, and the roofs of two of th© carriages were splintered. The wife of Mr Isaac Parish, of Burwood, died suddenly on Saturday. An inquest was held in:the. evening before Mr H. W. Bishop, District Coroner, and a verdict of -death from h€fart failure was returned in accordance with medical evidence. DUNEpiN, December 25. Isabella Gumming, aged 83 years, died suddenly, at her residenc© in Mornington, yesterday. Deceased, who resided with, her sister, .also an old woman, was attended by Dr Church a few months: ago for bronchitis. At that time Dr. Church had difficulty in getting into the house, deceased's sister obi jecting to a doctor being called. Deceased caught a chill on Tuesday and took to her bed on Thursday. Dr. Church cannot give a certificate of death. INVERCARGILL, December 23. A fatal accident occurred at the reclamation works at Bluff at noon today. Georg© Parsons, a. single man, aged 36, was standing on the brake of a truck descending anjJncline at a rapid rate, when th© truck loft" the rails",' and Parsons was thrown on his head and killed instantly.