THE INQUEST.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 45, 15 September 1880, Page 2

THE INQUEST.

Wellington, Tuesday night.

The inquest on the bodies qf Ada Pharazyn and Francis John Nicholas, who were killed through the railway accident at the Rimutaka, wag commenced at Featherston yesterday, before the coroner and a jury, Mr. Bunny, M.H.R., being foreman. Medical evidence having been given certifying to the cause of death, the jury proceeded to the scene of the accident, then adjourned for the funeral, and resumed during the afternoon. ■ Mr. Quin, hotelkeepef, Greytown, stated that he ' was a passenger in the train, hjs wife and fivi children being with him. He nbtic d nothing particular until the train got within about three chains of the second tunnel. ,Then some gravel was blown against the side of the carriage, and from the front he noticed the first two carriages leave the rails, and he was then thrown down inside the carriage he was riding in about 50 feet down the embankment, the carriage being thrown on its side. In his opinion, the wind was not the cause of the accident on this occasion, as he had frequently experienced heavier wind in. the same locality. In reply to the foreman ofthe jury, the witness said he attributed the disaster to the fact of the carriage not having been properly coupled, and stated that he saw

: 'i€hem uncoupled". The witness appeared to be very' undecided at this point, and stated that he was told by a man named

Montgomery that there were two new hands on the engine, that they had brought a bottle of brandy from Feather- . ■ Ston, and that both the- driver and, fireman were the worse for liquor. The inquest was then adjourned, but was again resumed this morning. Montgomery, on being sworn, said he was a ' passenger by the train, but had no reason to suppose that the wind was blowing heavier than usual. He noticed nothing to account for the overturning of the car-

riage, and nothing irregular in the coupling. The witness ' denied altogether ' that he told Quinn that the driver and stoker were new hands. The only brandy . he saw was some, given to the injured • passengers, and he did not know where it came from. He had no conversation

whatever with Quinn. He did not see any '* sighs of intoxication about any of the ' ©ffioials, and did not know if the men Were new hands or not. Henry Dunn said he was in - the first ■ carriage thrown over the embankment. ■ Hp first noticed the gust of wind which .j»pk the carriage bodily off the roils, and the body was smashed off the frame and rolled down the hill. The witness saw . nothing more. till reaching the bottom of the gully. He with assistance picked up the body of a boy and placed it on one side. The witness Quin, recalled, stated he • had been under a mistake about the brandy. Had no reason to suppose that the driver or stoker had brandy with them. . The foreman of the jury spoke very strongly on this recantation, and censored the coroner for taking hearsay state- . mente, such as Quin's about the brandy, as evidence, thereby allowing such a lie to have twenty-four hours' start of contradiction. The coroner (Dr. Spratt) upheld his conduct, on the ground that it was better to have such statements brought out and contradicted. The inquest is not yet finished.