ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS

Evening Star, Issue 20998, 12 January 1932, Page 7

ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS

WEST COAST DROWNING TRAGEDY. A Hokitika message states that the victims of the drowning tragedy below Waiho on Sunday have been identified as Miss Hilda Johnston, late of Sydney, and Miss Elsie Paterson, both of the Modern Dress Company, Auckland. The latter is a niece of Mrs Robert Renton, of Hokitika. The victims are not related. [The two women were driving a five-seater Essex car on their way to Weheka. They crossed the crossing, but later were held up by a swollen creek, and returned, making for Waiho. At Hendes Face the car stopped in the creek crossing. Apparently the women got out of the car and were washed into deep water and drowned.] BODY IDENTIFIED. The body of an elderly man found in the Manawatu River on Sunday has been identified by Senior-sergeant Martin, of Dannevirke, as that of Samuel Dennison (between seventy and eighty years of age), of no fixed residence. The deceased had lived in the Dannevirko and Palmerston North districts for several years, and hailed from Invercargill, where many years ago ho was employed as a gardener. The deceased had no known relatives.—Palmerston North Press Association telegram. MARRIED WOMAN’S DEATH. All evidence of negligence, or contributory negligence, was excluded at the inquest to-day concerning the death of Mrs Elliott, aged fifty-nine, who was injured in a taxi smash at the corner of Daniel and Constable streets, the coroner (Mr M'Neil, S.M.) saying that all ho wanted to find out was how, when, and where the deceased met her death, In his opinion the possible evidence of negligence might prejudice the parties in any subsequent proceedings. His formal finding was that the deceased died from shock following injuries to the pelvis and chest as the result of a collision between two taxis, driven by Edward Henry Leech and George Edward Harper.—Wellington Press Association telegram.