FRENCH PASS FATALITY

Grey River Argus, 23 August 1912, Page 2

FRENCH PASS FATALITY

THE INQUEST

(Per Press Association.) -

NELSON/ August 2 i

At the inquest on Robert Brissende", a stoker and petty officer of tl\e Koyal Navy, and lately-attached to the "Terra Nova survey liarty, Lieut. Pennell, officer in charge, said deceased was 34 years of age, with a wife, and two } chii-. dren.in England. JJeceased had never 1 been reported for intemperance, arid wns perfectly sober; when he saw him last, at 6 p.m. .on Saturday, arid he was reported missing to witness o» Sunday afternoon, and a search was made, the body , being found at the foot of the pier the following- morning, lie wrs lying, upwards, with arms stretched out. The only way he could account for the- .deceased not beingable to save himself was that he was stunned before entering- water-...---;The construction of. the wharf was such that deceased should have been.

able to save himself:, even if he could not swim, as v was so easy to get out:. His limbs presented no appearance of a struggle having taken place in the water. The circumstances would not sug-gest a simple drowning- by N a man who fell into- the 1 - water in. a conscious condition. A lot of drinking had be,en going- on among- the people about. the wharf on Saturday, but his men had been warned not to take part' in these carousals. Deceased's whole charac-; ter was gjod, and he was one of the best men they had. '.'"" • ••■'..

Alex Stewart, accommodation housekeeper at French Pass, gave evidence that a good deal .of drinking had been going on on .. .Saturday. Drinkingbouts had been pretty common lately among the fishermen, some of whom were quarrelling on Saturday.

Murray Aston, storekccper,said that deceased and others were in the store on Saturday night. AH except deceased and another man of the partywere noticeably under the influence of liquor. One of them, Kass'elbaum, had three bottles of rum and a case of five uozeh. ale in the shed on the wharf, 'which was open all day on Saturday. Drinking bouts on the wharf were very frequent of late.

Tho medical evidence showed that deceased's neck v was .broken and he was badly bruised,^ and bleeding had taken place fiom scalp wounds. The marks .vere not consistent with foul play, but might have been caused by the body washing against the wharf.

Joseph Edward Kasselbaum, a fisherman, deposed to drinking at the Pass on Saturday. "Though several people owned- the liquor he used, his .own lot amounted to five dozen of '.beer arid two g-allons of rum. He did not know when it was finished. He just left it on the wharf .and told them to help themselves. There was none left on Saturday night. He drank a lo s t of rum himself and shouted for several others. As far as he knew deceased did not taste drink that day. Several other witnesses testified to the drinking on Saturday.

The Coroner, Mr. S. J. Ev,ons, found that deceased had been -drowned- while unconscious from a fall or blow, but there was no evidence to show how he had been injured, deceased himself being perfectly sober.