MAN IN HARBOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 11

MAN IN HARBOUR

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST Art inquest into the death of Michael Joseph Curran, retired, aged 69, who met his death in the harbour on September 12, was opened today and was adjourned until tomorrow morning to enable the evidence of a hulk-keeper to be taken. Constable Kendrick said that at about 4.55 p.m. on September 12 he was told that there was a man in the water at A**tea Quay- He went there and sat* two men attempting to haul a man on to the wharf with a rope. It appeared that at 4.40 p.m. the hulkkeeper on' the Holmdale saw a fullyclothed man. floating on his back on the starboard side of. the hulk. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the man with a lifebuoy. He then attracted the attention of two men who were passing on a motor-cycle and an able seaman named Dunne stripped off and brought the man to the wharf. Death' then appeared'' to have taken place and artificial respiration proved fruitless.

James Rewi Dunne, able seaman on H.M.S.'Achilles, and residing with his parents at Miramar, gave evidence that he swam out some 400 yards from the wharf and brought in the deceased. Gertrude Maude Shepherd, matron Of the Ohlro Home, gave evidence of identification. Curran was about 69 years of age and was a native of Ireland, coming to New Zealand about 15 years ago/ He was a resident of the home and was subject to epileptic fits.