ACCIDENTS AN DEATHS

Evening Star, Issue 19020, 15 August 1925, Page 6

ACCIDENTS AN DEATHS

INQUEST AT PORT CHALMERS,

BODY NOT IDENTIFIED,

Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., coroner, opened an inquest at Port Chalmers yesterday afternoon in connection with the body found in tho harbor on Thursday morning. Constable S. Hood deposed that at 5 p.m. on Wednesday lie was told a body bad been seen in the water at tho George street wharf. With Constable Edwards he visited the locality, but nothing was discovered. The following morning, at daybreak, they found a body in about 10ft of water new tho steamer Stella. It had not yet been identified. Deceased was a man of about twenty-five years of age, and of medium build. There were no marks on the body. There were two gold teeth in the upper jaw. The clothing consisted of a tweed overcoat and dark brown suit, marked Mr R. Barker, also Strange and Co., Christchurch, 19/856, date 8.5.Yi. There was a striped shirt, pink singlet, and lace-up boots, but_ no stockings. There were also two coins, a tie, and a pair of socks in the pockets. .Deceased appeared to have been a laboring man, and tho body had been in the water slightly over a week. Thomas John Harrison, butcher, Port Chalmers, said that the body was that of a man who had called at his shop about a fortnight ago and purchased food. Ho then said ho was looking for a job, and would like to get away on the boats. Witness directed him to tho wharf, whore work was going pn. On leaving ho remarked that his luck might turn some day. The_ man was perfectly sober. Witness did not see him again. He considered that tho deceased was from twenty-eight to thirty years of ago. Ho was clean-shaven, and was neat and tidy in appearance. Tho inquest was adjourned sine die, with a view of further evidence being obtained. ANOTHER SHUNTING MISHAP. While employed in tho Auckland railway yards Lewis Alexander Thompson, a shunter, sustained a compound fracture of tho left leg through slipping when about to adjust a brake on a moving truck. VAGRANT’S DEATH. On Tuesday William Isaac Harrison, an old man, who was arrested in the West Melton district on a charge of vagrancy, was committed to Paparua Prison for two months. He was in bad health when admitted, and, despite close attention, died yesterday. The man was 63 years of age. FATAL RIDING ACCIDENT. A Hamilton Press Association message states that William Yandle, aged seventeen, the son of a farmer at Patamru, was trying to opon a gate while on horseback, when the horse fell backward into a ditch, pinning its rider beneath it. Yandle was suffocated with mud and water, and the body was badly crushed. He was dead when he was discovered. MOTOR CYCLIST’S CRASH. William Westrop, an English public schoolboy, who is learning _ farming, narrowly escaped death last night. He was riding a motor cycle, when ho crashed into tho express at Killarney road crossing. He was taken to hospital, where it was found that lie had sustained a severe slinking and a number of abrasions, lie is making good progress towards recovery.—Hamilton P.A. message.