ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1009, 27 December 1910, Page 8

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

SERIOUS REVOLVER WOUNDS. A YOUNG MAX'S ACTION. '.' (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ' Duncdin, December 24. While Constable Baker was on duty at I the corner of High and Princes Streets '• at 7.15 this morning he was informed that i a man had shot himself. Proceeding to . the Trocadoro Hotel he found Samuel .. Sloan, a bootmaker, aged 20, lying on the ' floor of his bedroom, party dressed, rand ; with a towel over his head. Sloan had a bullet wound in the centre of the forehead, and one in his left breast, the wounds having been inflicted with a .22inch calibre six-chambered revolver. Drs. Riley and North were called in; and the injured man was removed to the hos- . I'ital. N A porler named Saunders was cleaning passages when he thought he heard :i door slam, and going along the parsage he found the door of the room occupied by Sloan and a friend named Anslcy open. ; Inside ho saw Sloan lying on the lloor with a'revolver alongside him. Saunders immediately took possession of the wcas pon. Ansley, the companion, had left the . room prior to the shooting taking place. i The man's condition is serious. ' MYSTERY CLEARED UP. J INTENSE PAIN AND THE SEQUEL. 1 .. Christc'nmxh, December 21.' All doubts as to the fate of Stephen t Burgess, who disappeared from Kaiapai in ' ' a mysterious manner on Mondiy, were , set at rest by the finding of his body floating in the river to-day. A suspicion has existed that his'body would be found 'in the river, but in spite of persistent dragging of. .the Waimakariri north brajich no trace was obtained. The police hod also searched the adjacent bushes alnd raupo. It s«>nis certain from inquiries mado that Burgess had suffered intense -pain from an internal complaint for which he had undergone an operation,

and had also decided on having a second one performed. A BOAT IX A FLOODED ELVER. Roeflon, December 2G. Heavy rain came- down on Christmas Day, causing tho river to tiood. Two men, Jaiiies Billett and \\'m. Whittaker, tiio latter a Tasmanian—went to the former's farm across the lnangahua River in a boat. In returning the boat filled and went down. Billett could not sv,im, but stuck to the boat and was washed down on to a sand spit, staying there all night. V/hittaker, a good swimmer, was last seen swimming up stream, and it is thought he was drowned. HORSE TURNS A SOMERSAULT. Duncdin, December 25. Miss Ilal!, residing in Forth Street, met with a serious accident yesterday. She was riding a horse which stumbled, and turned a somersault, falling on her chest. No bones were broken, but she is suffering from concussion of tho spine. Her condition, however, is not considered daugerous. DEATH FOLLOWS SENILE DECAY. Duncdin, December 25. Thomas Kirkwood, SO years of age, died very suddenly at Port Chalmers yesterday afternoon. He had not been attended by a doctor, but death is supposed te be due to senile decay. CONSTABLE IN A STATE OF COMA. Christcliurch, December 25. Constable Scully, who has toen in tho force for. about thirty years, and who has been for some years court orderly at tho Magistrate's Court here, was removed to the hosnital this morning in a state of coma. During the day ho became unconscious, and his condition is critical. Ho has been stationed at Dunedin, Akaroa, and a number of other places in the Dominion. SHOOTING ACCIDENT. Last evening, at Gi.lo o'clock, a single man named Leonard Shaw, residing at ID Mercer Street, was brought to the Hos-

pital suffering from a gunshot wound in rhc foot. It appears drat Shaw, who is a labourer, 'l'i years of age, was out shooting at Plimmertou, when he mot with the accident. FRACTTJIiED SKULL. On Saturday afternoon, a married man named Alfred Baiter, who resides at No. 31 Jlulgravo Street, was fallen to the Hosnital suffering from a fractured skull. It appears that the injured man, who is •a carrier, accidentally fell off his express and was taken to the Hospital in an unconscious condition. He regained consciousness on Sunday afternoon, and is stated to be now on the way to recovery. . :