The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 88, 11 September 1852, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

September 11, 1852.

We publish elsewhere an account of an Inquest held to consider the circumstances attending the death of an unfortunate man, who perished apparently through exhaustion brought on by abstinence from food, and from exposure to the inclemency of a rainy night. The evidence adduced pre^ sents such inhumanity and callousness on the part of several witnesses who saw and met the deceased, that we feel justified in more particularly calling the attention of the public to the event, than a mere cursory perusal of the evidence would induce. And the more so, as the Jury, who, in their verdict, throw a considerable amount of blame on the Police for negligence in not making more diligent search after the man, have altogether abstained from marking, by the slightest comment, their sense of the indifference, to use a very gentle turn, manifested by those who witnessed his distress and incapacity to help himself. It is perfectly true that they excuse themselves on the plea that they considered the man to have been intoxicated, and that, therefore, an hour or two's exposure to.the weather would " bring him to"; but even this excuse, if it can be admitted, proves of little avail, for the night was dark and rainy, and common humanity should have led even the most indifferent to make some effort to relieve a fellow creature lying prostrate and helpless on the bare earth. But the "most unexceptionable testimony demonstrates that the man was perfectly sober examination proves that the body presented all absence of spiritous liquors—and yet a witness asserted that he smelt the fumes of brandy, and the helplessness of exhaustion was conjured into the vacant smile of drunkeness. And so it is throughout—drunk he must be. Thus, unlike the good Samaritan, these Pharisees andLevites passed by on the other side, and left a fellow creature to die the death of a dog, alone, helpless, by the road side, exposed to the horrors of darkness and the falling; rain of heaven.

It is, we think to be regretted that the name of the man was not demanded who, on being1 asked if he knew who it was who shouted, replied " I neither know nor care." But no enquiry seems to have been made to ascertain who this christain was, and we only hope that some feelings of shame and remorse may arise in his breast, should he happen to peruse this brief record of his heartlessness. We have thus, in the dis^ charge of what we deem our duty as journalists, commented on these proceedings, and we shall hot have done so in vain; if it has the effect, as we hope it may, of instilling some slight visitations of compunction into those who may have erred, it is to, ibe hoped, rather from carelessness than1 rroirri indifference.. If it should. be: their lot ;;it any future time to witness a fellow' creat'iire prostrate, we trust it may induce them to think of the fate of Denham, who,: had he been cared for and sheltered, might at. tKis moment have been alive and well, and that they will not leave to the mercy of the weather those who, though intoxicated, have a larger claim on common humanity than the risk of being left to ultimately " come to."