HOKITIKA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXI, Issue 2582, 27 October 1865, Page 5

HOKITIKA.

Wb take the following items from the Hokitika Leader of the 20th inst. : — We have to record a melancholy and fatal boat acoideat that occurred on Monday. It appears that one of the crew of ihe schooner 'Tainbo,' being on shore, hailed her to send a boit to take him on board. Two of his shipmates jumped into the •mall bout belonging to her and pulled for the ■hore, bnt in consequence of the 'Tambo' lying right oppoiite the entrance, and the freshet in the river being extremely heavy, she wm curried through the channel iuto the breaker!. The first sea capsized her, washing the two poor fellows out. They wer«, howevsr, seen clinging to her, but ths next se* sealed their fate, tearing them from their frail support. They were never seen alive afterwards. No assistance could be rendered in the face of such a heavy sea and freshet. One of the bodies has been recovered, as a corpse clothed in a sailor's dresi was picked up on the beach in the evening a little to the northward of tho 'Montezuma.' The three-masted schooner 'Rifleman,' MoClatohy commander, left Auckland on the 22ud ultimo. E x . perieuced fine weather until the 26th, on which day being then off Cape Farewell, it came on to blow' heavily from the S.W., obliging her to bear up for the Totaranui, where she anchored the samt eveniug, in company with ten or a dozen other vessels. Here she remained until the 6th instant, arriving off Hokitika on the 10th } but in consequence of there being no steamtug to tow her in, and the bar being impassable to sailing vessels, she stood off and on until Sunday the 15th, when she managed to safely enter the river on the morning's tide. On Friday last, one of her seamen, named Jainea McNeilage, whilst nhaking a reef out of the fore topsail, missed his hold and Ml overboard. A. bout vras immediately lowered, and every exertion made to save him, but although his body was reoovered life was extiuot. The 'Hifloman' brings 46 passengers for this port. An inquest was held at the Post-office Hotel before Dr. Beswick, coroner, on tho body of James McNeilage, who fell from the rigging of the schooner 'Eifleman,' on Friday last. From tho depoiitions it appears that the deceased had worked his passage to this port from Auckland, and that on Friday afternoon he was ordtred to go aloft. Whilst engaged on the topsail yard he slipped, and in falling backwards struck against the fore-yard on his downward journey to the water. The ship was immediately put about, and every effort made to save him, l>nfc life was extinct when he was brought on board. Tho jury returned » verdict of •" Accidentally drowned by falling into tht tea,- from the yard of the schooner 'Rifleman,'"