DISTRESSING ACCIDENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 165, 6 April 1908, Page 7

DISTRESSING ACCIDENT.

CYCLIST KILLED AT THE LOWER HTJTT. : A ■ distressing fatality .occurred at . the Lower Hutt, at 4.50 o'clock yesterday afternoon, the victim being Mr. Murdoch Gillies, a' telegraphist, who was returning' to the city, in company with'a companion, Mr. Walter Richard Howard, a check clerk in tho Telegraph Department, after having spent a day cycling in the country. It appears that the young men set out from Wellington to Pahautanui in the morning, and had returned over the hills to Howard's, and .thence. went on via Belmont. They had just passed the Lower Hutt Railway Station, and were proceeding against tho wind at a very 'moderate"pace.;- Gillies kept near ,the edge of the road on the right-hand ' sido, whilst Howard sped along closo to tho edge of the . road on' the left-hand side. Behind him camo a: motor-car, - which contained Mr. Goring Johnston, Mr. I l '. J. Grace, and two lady friends. ,; Mr. Howard heard a "toot," hut ho did not warn deceased, as lie thought ho must ;havo also heard the signal, and as there was plenty, of room for the car to pass between, them. Just as the car camo up to them, Mr. Gillies, to the horror of his companion and the occupants of the car, swerved into the track in front of it. Before the driver, could pull up the car had knockcd Mr. Gillies down.

'It was found that Mr. Gillies, who was unconscious, had sustained fracture of the skull and of one .of his logs, and ho expired before raodical assistance, which had been at once sent for, could reach-him. Tho deceased, who was twenty-nino years of age, and single, had been in tho Government sorvice a number of years, and was extremely populhr among the officors of the Dopartmont. His parents reside at Tapanui, in Otago. : . ' . An inquest will be held this afternoon, probably at Lower Hutt, by Dr. M'Arthur, S.M.- "