ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9605, 21 December 1896, Page 6

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

♦ A boy named John Thomson, about fourteen or fifteen years of age, fell over a cliff at Sandy Beach, Lyttelton, on Saturday, and was badly bruised and cut, but no bones were broken. The little girl Ralph, who waa run over by a greengrocer's cart on Friday evening in Colombo road, Sydenham, although not yet out of danger, is progressing favourably. On Saturday night a young man had a narrow escape of drowning in the Avon. He was, with a party of fifteen, in a cauoeing race, when his canoe got stuck on a mud bank between the Hospital and the first footbridge. He was pushing himself off when the canoe capsized, and he went under and the boat on top of him. When he caught hold of the canoe it rolled over again. Two of the party got each side of him, enabling him. to rest his arms on their canoes till he got into shallow water. When he reached home he was none the worse. , (PRK33 ASSOCIATION TELKGRAM.) NAPIER, December 20. A most shocking fatal accident occurred this morning. Mr Bright Cooper, of the firm of Cooper and Abbott, sheep farmers, went with others to bathe on the beach. He was a strong swimmer, and went out about twenty-five yards when his companions, who were nearer shore, saw the fin of a large shark near him. They called out to him and made their way to the shore and threw stones to frighten the shark. They were horrified to see the watei suddenly discoloured with blood, though Mr Cooper did not call out and there was no struggle or splashing. The body was next seen drifting, and his companions swam in and brought it to the shore. He was alive but unconscious, and died in a minute or two. His left arm was bitten clean off at the elbow, and the right at the wrist. A large bite had been taken out of his left side. Both legs and other parts of his body also were bitten. Mr Cooper was a young man of tweDty-eight, prominent in athletic circles, and very popular. He was a bachelor, and. his relatives'live in England and the Cape Colony.