ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 65, 10 December 1907, Page 6

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

. — ~„ .., ,ts iiununuj, A SEXTON'COMMITS SUICIDE. PATHETIC NOTE TO HIS NEPHEW. (BY TELEGRAPH— SrECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) New Plymouth, December 9. A middle-aged man named William Joseph Gamblin, employed as soxton at tho i-ew liymouth cemetery, committed suicide just arter midnight at a private hospital in New i. lymouth, Ho had been ailing with Brieht's disease, but on Sunday took a slight turn tor the bettor. He had become quite reconciled to the idea that ho was going to dio, and had instructed his nephew as to the disposition of his affairs. On Sunday night ho was more cheerful than usual at 10.30 The night nurse visited-the room at 12.30, and he said he was very comfortable, tolling the nurse : not to bother' about coming again until ho rang for, her... Fivo minutes later she heard a gushing and gurgling sound in. his room, and returned to find him with the upper part of his body hanging out of bed. Ihere was a. pool of blood at the bedside and a gash in Ins throat. He expired m a few seconds. At the inquest to-day it was elicited that the nephew had, at his request, taken his shaving outfit to Gamblin, and a blood-stained, razor was found half-concealed beneath his body. As showing that the suicide was premeditated, the following almost illegible note was found in his pocket, on which he had been making his last inventory of his possessions. It was addressed to his nephew, Hubert Stanton. Dear Hubert;— When you: get this I will be gone to give my last, account before, a merciful—oh, God, have mercy on mv soiil! I know it is wrong to do it, but the "pain is So „S rea ?- l ll0 Pe I will bo better off. 1 ' " ■Iho jury returned a .verdict of suicide during a.period of mental aberration. (BT TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) ' , T•' '■ . Ashbiirton, December 9. Last evening the body of a man named George Cochrane was found in an advanced stage of decomposition in a hut'at El«in \\akanui, about four' miles from Ashburron! Iho case is evidently, oiio of suicido, as a gun containing a discharged cartridge was found lying with the muzzle pointing towards the body, and a box of the same'kind of cart-' ridges was also found in the hut.' Deceased was single, about thirty years of ago, and had lived all his' life in the Wakanui district. All his relatives reside in the' vicinity. At the inquest the' jury returned a verdict that deceased met his death from a gunshot wound, and that there was no evidenco to show- how such was inflicted. They wero satisfied that there were no suspicious circumstances. . A young man named Andrew Harris, engaged in the Mount Somers coal pits, got uis right foot badly crushed while engaged in his work on Thursday, and had to be removed iO the Ashburton - Hospital, whero it was found necessary to amputate the injured limb at the ankle joint on Sunday. ' . .. ' Auckland, December 9. A distressing accident occurred at 'Newton to-day, when the five-year-old daughter of Mr. P. Draper, of East Street, was badly burnt. Tho mother had gone out, leaving the child playing with its four-year-old brother m a neighbour's back vard. She locked her own. house up, but omitted to close tho back window, and after spending some time in play the children went back homo. The boy clambered in and laid hands on a box of matches, with the result that his sister s clothes were shortly afterwards in flames. A neighbour, hearing tho screams, rushed m, and, stripping the child, throw a blanket over it, thereby extinguishing tho hre. Dr. Goldstein was called in, and' tho little girl was removed to tho.Hospital, her condition being serious. _, , Dunedln, December 9. Gharlcs Henry Fordham, aged fifteon, died sudt en y at North-East Valley yesterday. He had beon an invalid for three years, aiid caught a cold a week ago. ~4" in 3. u ,S? t was llold t(Mla y on tho body of Helen M'laggart, 67 years of, age, who died _on Friday. Dr. Closs gave it as his opinion that doath was due to syncope accelerated by want of food, and tho diseased condition of tho internal 'organs. Her heart indicated fatty degoneration, probably duo co alcoholic poisoning. A verdict in accordance with tho medical testimony was re turned. Nelson, December 9. A man named George Marshall wns found dead near his residence at Ngntimoto yesterday morning. No further details are to hand. • A little girl named Mary Glading, residing at No. 6 Britomart Street, foil and fractured tho base of her skull yesterday evening wucn alighting from a tramcar. The girl was taken to the hospital for treatment.