ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 274, 25 November 1897, Page 8

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

John Walker, formerly licensee of the Red Lion Hotel, Dnnedin, committed suicide on November S by jumping under the wheels of the train by which lie was a passenger. The man was cut to pieces. A sad affair occurred atNorthcote on Nov. 7 when John W. Grant, aged 30 years, who was employed as a clerk to Messrs Maoklow Bros., Mechanics' Bay, committed suicide by taking " rough on rats."

A middle-aged man named Albert Charles Connop attempted suicide at Hastings by hanging on Nov. 10. He was found at midnight by some stable boys suspended from the rafters of his father's stable. He was cut down and ultimately recovered consciousness.

James Waddcl, fourteen years of age son of a member of the Bluff Harbour Board, was drowned at Bluff on November 20th by falling over the wharf about 30yds from the shore. He was a good swimmer, and it is supposed he was injured in falling. The body was recovered half an hour afterwards.

A desperate attempt at suicide is reported from Takaka, where an elderly digger named Thomas Edwards, who recently came into some money, while at the Globe Hotel, lacerated his arm and leg with a knife, and swallowed nails, matches, and camphor. He then swallowed a lump of tobacco, which caused .vomiting, and probably led to his life being saved. He has been committed to the asylum.

A sad fatality happened off the Marine Parade Napier, on Nov. 16. Mrs A. Hickey, wife of an employee of the Harbour Board, was bathing hoi- feet in the sea, when a strong under-current took her out. Two young men, named P. Emerson and J. M. Hamilton, pluckily went to the rescue, going about a couple of hundred yards out. A heavy surf was running at the time, but when they brought the woman ashore she was lifeless. Deceased leaves a grownup family. The dead body of a man was found in the water underneath the Oratia Bridge at Henderson on' Nov. 1-6, and was identified as Unit jaf .John Halstead, aged ££', an inmate" of Me Cbstfey fibriie $£ Epson). Halstead left, the Homo on the fltli inst., and is believed to have attempted suicide, as he was seen with his throat bleeding at Henderson last week. His body was found in eight feet of water in the Oratia Creek, and lie is supposed to have jumped off the bridge. A young man named John Newtown met with a fatal accident at the Christchureh Meat Company's Works on Saturday, Nov. G. He was at work in the manure department, and was carrying a 2c\vt sack of manure, when he slipped on the concrete lloor and fell heavily. In bis fall he broke his collar-bone, and injured his spine so severely that from the waist downwards lie was completely paralysed. Doctors were at once telephoned for, but could do nothing. The young man lingered till eleven o'clock on Saturday night, when death put an end to his sufferings.

On Nov. 23 Andrew Sinclair wasadniitted to the Wellington Hospital .sufferingfrom injuries received through placing a dynamite cap in his mouth. The roof of his mouth was blown out and the lower jaw shattered. No hopes are entertained of bis recovery. Sinclair had been noticed to be in a despondent state for some weeks past. He left his boarding-house and went to a house in Haining-street, where he put the cap in bis mouth and lit the fuse in the presence of two women. His injuries are frightful, and, though the man rallied a little to-day, it is not thought he can possibly recover. It is believed be came from Poverty Bay.

A peculiar accident occurred at Tauranga on October 29, resulting in the death of a young man named Walter Walmsley, eighteen years of age. He was driving several horses from Oilman's stables to water at a pump a couple hundred yards away, and riding one. On arrival at pump the loose horses started biting and kicking at one another. The one Walmsley was riding arrived last and , reared iip to 'miss, the kick of the others. Waimsley fell oft" backwards on Ilia head, fracturing the base of his skull, and tho horse fell on top of him. He was picked ; up at once unconscious, and died an hour later without regaining his senses. Walmsley was a prominent footballer, and his death is much regretted. His father and mother are old residents of Tauranga.

A man named John Hatton was admitted to the Thames Hospital on Nov. 8 suffering from severe injiiries, the result of a blasting accident in the Waihi mine on the previous day. Hatton was engaged sinking, and two others rising, and the point of connection was close to both parties. Those working below had put in two holes, and Hatton had also put in one. Both parties fired their holes at the same time. Hatton hearing the shots go off beneath him, mistook the locality of the explosion, and, thinking it proceeded from the charge he himself had put, went baclc. When he was within a few feet of the hole the charge exploded, Hatton receiving the full effect in his face and body. He had lost one eye, and the other was badly injured. He has also bad cuts on the face and left arm.

Thomas Rider, a wharf lumper, who had been reported missing since the 10th inst., had evidently taken to heart the mode of suicide recommended in the Scriptures, namely, to tie a millstone around one's neck and drown himself in the depths of the sea. A dead body, which was found to be Rider's, was discovered in the harbour on November 16th. The body was fully dressed, and around the waist was tied with a clothes line a small grindstone, weighing about lOlbs. It is supposed that the case was one of suicide, and that Rider had tied the grindstone round him so as to drown himself. The stone, however, was not heavy enough to prevent the body from rising. Rider Avas a man of about 40 years of age, a native of England, and was employed as a lumper on the Wharf. He resided in Chapel-street, and he leaves a wife, Caroline Rider.