ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 8504, 1 May 1891, Page 2

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Daring the voyage of the barque Northern Chief, which has just arrived at Auckland from Newcastle, a dead body was sighted floating in the sea when the vessel was off Wanganui bluff on the West Coast, between Kaipara and Hokianga, The body, which was apparently clad in dark clothes, was soon lost sight of, and could not be recovered. Nothing is known of the identity of the drowned man, William Wernham, a settler at Birkenhead, near Auckland, died suddenly yesterday morning. At the inquest a verdict was returned that death had resulted from heart disease. Wernham, who was sixty-one years of age, leaves a widow and flve children, At the inquest on the body of a Native named Fapita, who hanged himself at Whakekan, it transpired that he bad committed suicide as the result of disappointed love. Mrs Sarah Dermott, wife of a cab-driver at Richmond (Canterbury), died suddenly yesterday. She had been suffering from a paralytic stroke for two years, but enjoyed tolerable health until her death. [By Telegraph.] AUCKLAND, May 1. Mr Thompson, manager of the Equitable Insurance Association, Sell from bis horse at Russell a week ago and died to-day from hemorrhage of the lungs. He leaves a wife and six children.