CORONER'S INQUEST.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 22, 7 June 1851, Page 5

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An inquest was held on Tuesday, tlie 27th of May, (and thence adjourned and re-adjourned respectively to the evenings of the 2nd and 3rd inst.,) before Wm. Donald, Esq., M.D., Coro-. ner, and a Jury selected from the inhabitants of Lyttelton, to inquire into the manner in which Daniel Morrison, late master of the " William and John" cutter, met his death. The patient investigation of evidence entered into by the Court elicited the following facts:— It appeared that Morrison's cutter entered Pigeon Bay on Sunday the 18th of May. On the evening of the 19th he had supper with a party of ten or twelve persons, of whom several were called as witnesses. The house where they assembled was described as being built of slabs, with a level flat of about 8 feet before the door, very slippery in wet weather ; from the edge of this the bank sloped down to the beach at an angle of about 45 degrees, the perpendicular height being about 10 feet; a little to the side were steps, by which it was usual to ascend; below this was the beach, described as very rough, and covered with large boulder stones and angular pieces of rock. The evidence further shewed that the party were supplied with several bottles of whiskey by the master of the " Old Man" schooner, then lying in the bay. None of the party were quite sober. Morrison had drunk freely, and, without any previous quarrelling between them, challenged a man named John Ball to tight; Ball refused, when Morrison struck him a violent blow and knocked him down; Ball was half stupified by drink and the blow, and was carried into the whare. Shortly after, Morrison staggered out of the door; John Campbell, a sawyer living in the house, followed, to coax him in, and seeing nothing of him, called him by name, but received no answer; he then went down to the beach by the steps, and found Morrison lying at full length, a little on the leftside, with his head lying on a piece of rock, and his feet about 4 feet from the foot of the bank. Campbell lifted him, and felt warm blood running on his arm ; he called for assistance, and had Morrison carried into the house, where they washed him, but saw no wound at the time. The night was dark and cloudy, although the moon was up. In the night Morrison fell from the bunk, which was about 3 feet in height, and cut bis face. The next evening they were advised to take him to Port Lyttelton for medical aid ; they could not get a boat that night, but hired one from the Maories the following morning, and brought Morrison to the hospital. From the evidence given by Mr. Hay, it further appeared, that there were three stumps of bushes in a line with the door, close to the edge of the bank; the stones had been pointed out to him where the head of deceased had struck, he saw blood there, these stones were 10 feet from the foot of the bank, he thought it likely that Morrison might have stumbled at the stumps, and increased the force of the fall by striking the bank also in his descent, pitching forward on bis head. Mr. Hay described the nearest stone to be 17 inches by 12 inches in surface, with the edge towards the bank a little raised, this edge was rather round ; the men at tho whare were scarcely sober when he went there the day after the accident. The medical testimony of Mr. Earle, Surgeon, who had examined the injury, described it as a severe fracture of the base of the skull, evidently caused by a. forcible blow with some instrument, blunt, but not absolutely round. Some apparent discrepancies in the former evidence were reconciled by the evidence of Mr. Hay—and the Jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of Accidental Death.