A SHIPWRIGHT’S DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 18318, 4 July 1923, Page 1

A SHIPWRIGHT’S DEATH

UNSATISFACTORY EVIDENCE.

Mp J. PL Bartholomew, S.M., (coroner) held an inquest yesterday afternoon at Port Chalmers touching the death of David Stewart M'Laren, shipwright, whose body was found on the foreshore at Carey Bay during the morning with a gash in the head. Deceased, who was forty-five years of age, resided with his wife and three children at Carey Bay. John Cramond, blacksmith, was the first witness called by Sergeant M'Eao (who represented' the police). Witness said that he was walking along the 'foreshore road from Port Chalmers to hie home at Deborah Bay at about 7.50 p.m. on Monday. About three or four hundred yards past the Crescent Hotel at Carey Bay he saw McLaren and a woman sitting by the roadside. M'Laren was singing. He had a bottle of liquor. Witness said “Good night’’ as he passed, and M'Laren replied. Witness went home. The following morning going to 'work ho picked np M'Laren’s cap near where the latter was sitting the previous evening. Witness heard that M'Laren vas missing, so he returned to CareyBay, and near where he had picked up the cap he saw deceased’s body at the bottom of a stone embankment by the roadside. There was blood on a protruding stone, which had evidently caused tho gash in deceased’s head as he fell down the bank. The body was face. down. Jane Wadsworth, widow, residing at Lower Harbor, deposed that she was at Port Chalmers on Monday afternoon. On her way home she called at the Crescent Hotel, Carey Bay, and purchased a bottle of whisky. Near tho boat sheds she met a man, who spoke to her, but she did not know him. She helped him to his feet.

To 'Sergeant M'Rae; She did not sit down, and no one except ' a neighbor passed at the time. Her bottije of whisky was not opened. Deceased did not have "a drink out of it. He may have handled the bottle.

To the Coroner : The bottle of whisky was not opened until after she got home. The neighbor who Shad passed was Mr Box, who gave her a lift in his cart. She lived down the harborside about, four miles from Port Chalmers. She had no drink at all at Port Chalmers. She was sure she was telling the whole truth. , Margaret Hoskins, married, residing at Carey Bay, said that she knew the deceased. On Monday afternoon she accompanied his wife from Dunedin Hospital, and they reached Port Chalmers about 5 o’clock. Deceased met them at the train and got a taxi, but did not , accompany them to his home, because he had to go a message, He was pevxectiy sober then.

Sergeant M'Eac said that the police had been unable to trace deceased’s > movemeats'from the time he left the, rail way station until he was eeon later in the evening sitting by the roadside at Carey Bay. The Coroner, in. returning a verdict of accidental drowning, commented on the evidence of the witness Wadsworth, elating that it was not satisfactory. Deceased, evidently under the influence of liquor, had fallen, over the embankment, striking -his head against the stones, and stunning himself as he tumbled into the harbor.