DEATH OF A PRISONER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 5

DEATH OF A PRISONER.

"SOMETHING WRONG SOMEWHERE." ' IB? TJEI.EGRAFI2—riCESS ISSOCIAT.ION.) . Chrisiohuroh, .October.2l. An inquest was held to-day. at tho Christchurch Hospital, regarding the death of James ICirkpatrick, who died at the hospital yesterday morning, aftor. ' being transferred from Lytteltoii Gaol. Mr. Bishop, S.M., was the coroner, ,'withoiit a jury.' Constable Phillips gave evidence that ho arrested the'deceased in the street at 11.50 a.m. on October 14 in a state of helpless ;drunkeiuiess. ' Tho man was kept in the cells all .day, and the following morning was taken Beforo the Court. He seemed then in low. spirts and ill; so was re/vianded for a week, for medical treatment, and was taken, to Lyttelton Gaol. He had been, drinking con'siderably'for the fortnight previous. Walter Bishop, solicitor, said deceased was a client of'-.his, whose wife was an inmate of the Sunnysido Mental Hospital. The man did not seem ,:to have any regular homo, and liivd' been -'unsteady. He had at one timebeon a soldier and also a policeman in but more recently had been farming. He'had called at Bishop's office on October 9 to arrange about going to Queensland. if his wife could go also, but there wore difficulties in tho way, and ho remained about town. Dr., Leslie Crooke, house surgeon at Christchurch Hospital, said deceased was admitted froni the gaol in a semi-moribund condition, With symptoms of lung and' heart disease, He had been suffering from tho results', of alcoholism, and died on Tuesday morning. A post-mortem showed that death was due'to heart failure, the result of pneumonia ;iri both lungs and heart inflammation. The conditions wero probably due to excessive alcoholism. . ■ , A . gaoler. said deceased had been ill in prison, but ih'ad been able to walk down to the- station- on Sunday without assistance.' On the way down to the hospital he said he was "feeling splendid," ana spoke quite rationally.'. ' ' ' ' ;The^Coroner.said the doctor , had just given' 'evidence that the man arrived in a semi-moribund state! with pneumonia in both lung's.'. . There, was something "wrong somewhere.' ,' Dr. Crooke, recalled, said he was not prepared at that'stage to say whether the man was ill, a fit condition to travel. ■The 'sister in charge of the' ward said tho ni&ii was in a dying condition when admitted. He had been able to walk, but was delirious, and sank gradually. He was not fully conscious at any time. „ The coroner adjourned the inquest until Friday,' in order to get the evidence of the prison 'doctor.