ALPINE TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1938, Page 20

ALPINE TRAGEDY

EVIDENCE OF COMPANION

CORONER'S COMMENT

(By Telegraph—Presß Association.)

TIMARU, March 9.

A denial that he had taken a turn to the right soon after leaving de la Beche Hut, as suggested by Guide Bowie, was given by Guide Ronald Gunn when the inquest into the death of Patrick Carroll was continued at Timaru today.

"Still Suffering from injuries he received when, together with Carroll he slipped on the Rudolph Glacier and'fell to an ice ledge 40 feet, below, Gunn, a guide employed by Sullivan Brothers, Weheka, West Coast, was unable to stand while giving his evidence. Gunn said that he had spoken to Bowie for only two minutes, during which he told Bowie what he thought would be the best way for the party to bring the body back. That information had led Bowie to suggest that Gunn had made a mistake when he had left de la Beche Hut.

"There is no doubt from the evidence of Gunn that the fall from which the deceased sustained his injuries was an accidental fall <iuo to Gunn slipping and carrying the deceased to a considerable drop, from which both were rendered unconsicous," said the Coroner, Mr. H. Morgan, S.M. "The medical evidence showed that the injuries were the cause of Carroll dying after a lapse of some hours' exposure to severe cold and frost bite. Death was due to injuries received from an accidental fall while making an east to west traverse of the Graham Saddle."

The Coroner criticised Gunn's judgment in setting out when he did and characterised it as an error of judgment, but paid a tribute to his fortitude and endurance after1 the accident occurred. . -'