ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 9167, 29 July 1890, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,—COPYRIGHT,] [Special to Press Association.] [Received July 28, at 12.15 p.m.J BRISBANE, July 28. The China Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Changsha, which ran ashore on Rattray Island during a fog, has been floated off. • MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. [Per Press Association.] NEW PLYMOUTH, July 28. A strange accident happened on board the steamer Glenelg yesterday, when off Cape Egmont. James George Sinclair, steward, was standing on the poop when a heavy sea broke on board and carried him overtheside. Fortunately when Sinclair was ten or twelve yards from the vessel, the wave recoiled and placed him on board again, on the fore deck, where he caught hold of a rope and saved himself from being taken overboard a second time, His escape was most miraculous as the sea was too heavy for any small boat to live in it, and Sinclair would inevitably have been drowned. The force with which Sinclair went against the winch stunned him and inflicted a scalp wound, from which blood flowed profusely. The captain turned the steamer round and landed the wounded man at the breakwater, whence he was taken to the Hospital. He is reported this morning to be progressing well towards recovery. MARTON, July 28. A young man, named Gillespie, shot himself this morning. Our Sheffield correspondent writes• This locality experienced a painful shock this (Sunday) morning on discovering that an old and respected resident had been found dead under very distressing circumstances. The deceased, Mrs Martin, had not been in good health lately, and was under the care of Dr Meadows. At an early hour on Sunday morning she rose and partially dressed herself, and got out of her house by a window without disturbing the family. She was missed by her husband some time before daylight, and search made at the neighbours’ houses resulted fruitlessly. Shortly after her body was discovered in the Malvern water-race a few chains from her residence. The last day of the Paris Floral Festival, organised in the Bois de Boulogne for the securing of funds for the “ Society of Help for • the Victims of Duty,” being favoured with sunshine in the early part of the day, witnessed the arrival of an enormous crowd of spectators, when a sudden downfall 1 of rain set everybody running towards the nearest stands ot cabs and omnibuses. In the thickest of tho retreating crowd a young fellow had the stupid audacity to strike the nose of a horse of one of the dense lino of carriages, that were making in the same direction, with a bunch of flowers attached to the end of a stick. The horse took fright, and overturned tha vehicle, which fell upon the closely-packed crowd of pedestrians on the sidewalk, crushing seven persons, of whom one, a lady, was killed on the spot, the others being so seriously injured that they are not expected to recover, and a still greater number being more or less the worse for tho terror thus excited, and the hurts received from the disorderly movements of the crowd under the excitement of the catastrophe.