ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9483, 4 August 1891, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

FLOODS AND LOSS OF LIFE, f.Special to Prices Association.! [Received August 4, at 1.20 a.m.] MELBOURNE, August 3. The township of Walhalla, one hundred and twenty miles east of Melbourne, is submerged. The water is chiefly from melting snow on the ranges. The water came down very suddenly and tha residents escaped with but little clothing. Several bridges Lave been swept away and two men drowned. Two others are believed to have perished in landslips, and it is feared that more fatalities will be reported. Heavy rains have caused floods in Ballarat and Qippsland, and railway traffic has been interrupted. —vr—[Prb Press Association.] LANDSLIP. PALMERSTON NORTH, August 3. A slip occurred in tho Manawatu Gorge yesterday, near the place where an engine ran off the line recently. Tho ddbris extends along the line about a chain, and will require some days to be cleared. Traffic is uninterrupted, passengers and mails being transferred to the trains for Woodville and Palmerston. A STRANGE DEATH. NAPIER, August 3. Patrick Coyle, aged seventy-four, who was employed by the Maoris, was found dead, hanging by one of his feet, which had caught in some steps leading to a loft in the stable where he slept. He was under the influence of liquor when seen on Saturday. It is believed that tho deceased man fell over the stops, got the foot caught, and was suffocated in that position. BURIED IN AN AVALANCHE. A SHOCKING OCCURRENCE. DUNEDIN, August 3. News was received in town last night of a sad affair on tho Kyeburn ranges, which, it is feared, has resulted in the loss of three, if not four lives. It appears that on Friday a young lad named Meikle, about fifteen years of age, was lost on the ranges. The weather was very severe, and search parties were at once organised. Among the search parties were a brother of the lad who was lost, and two others named Blanchard and Beer. They started out on Saturday morning to search for the missing lad, and were out all day. As they did not return in the evening the greatest anxiety prevailed, and yesterday morning further search parties were organised, and a determined attempt was made to find them. A cap, which is identified as belonging to one of the young men, was found on tho ridge of ranges, and a closer search revealed tho fact that the three had either fallen over a cliff some fifty feet high or, whst seems more probable, .U-at., while standing near the edge of the cliff a slip occurred carrying the young men with it. The three were found buried under some fifteen feet of snow and mullock. It is understood that tho three were dead when discovered ; but on this point tho information received is not definite.

A later telegram says that the bodies of Alpbonso Beer (aged 20), Robert Blanchard (20) and James Meikle (18), have been discovered. Blanchard was found embedded in sis or seven feet of snow, about a chain from where Beer’s body was found; while Meikle v/as discovered some twenty or thirty yards further up. The body of Thomas Meikle, aged 14, is not yet discovered. The three first-named belonged to a search party of nine, and disappeared from the view of their companions by tho snow giving from under them, and completely enveloping them in tho avalanche which slipped fully 400yds down the mountain side into a gully. They were then precipitated with awful velocity over a perpendicular cliff 50ft in depth. The bodies were discovered yesterday by a search party of two hundred men from. Kyeburn. Blanchard and Beer were evidently killed outright from the fall, but Meilde’s body showed no marks of injury, and it is thought he must havj lived some time after reaching the bottom*

The Coroner having learnt all the particulars relating to Air F. F. Williams’ death/ which occurred on Sunday afternoon, decided that an inquest would bo unnecessary. A man named Thomas Wilson, in the employ of Mr A. Lahmert, of Jack’s Pas?, Eaumer Plains, met with a severe accident on Sunday. The horse he was riding slipped on some ice and fell on one of "Wilson’s legs, breaking it below tbs knee. Dr Power, of Cuiverdan, reduced tho fracture. A woman named Lily Thompson died at No. 20 George street at 5.40 a.xn. yesterday. She was of very dissolute habits, and had been suffering from a cold, and as she had not been attended by a doctor, an inquest was held yesterday at the New Zealander Hotel before Captain Freed, 14. M., and a Jury, of whom Sir H, Condon was chosen foreman. The evidence of John Fleming, in whose house deceased was staying, and of Dr Moorhouse, who conducted the post-mortem examination, having been taken, a verdict that death resulted from natural causes was returned. Hr M/Grath, whilst scooping sand at New Brighton on Saturday, met with what may prove to be a very serious accident. It appears that tho scoop struck a log, and the handle hit Mr M'Grath Just under the heart, knocking him down. Assistance did not reach him for about two hours after the accident occurred. He was taken homo, but refused to see a doctor, although he said ho thought ho was done for. On Sunday he was still in the same condition.

Pour years ago we recorded an accident of a rather peculiar nature which happened to p. e,;r! thirteen years o£ age, daughter of Mr W. Crysell, who then lived at Cuat, hut is now residing at Kangiora. The girl rose from her chair to attend to the fire, and on re-seating herself came in contact with the blade of a new pocketknife, inadvertently held on the edge of tire seat by her utile brother. The blade entered the buck part of her right thigh to a depth of over two inches, and broke off in the wound. Two surgeons did their best to discover the whereabouts of the piece of blade but failed, and for four years the girl suffered, at times very acutely, from the presence of the foreign substance. One day last week, however, she felt the point of the blade protruding through the skin within an inch of place where it entered, and, without saying anything to her parents, she, with, commendable pluck, managed to draw the steel out. The piece of blade measured two inches in length by three-eighths’ of an inch ui width, and it still retained its sharp iug-; and part ot the original polish. Seeing that it came out as it entered, point foremost, it most likely travelled round the bone, or came in contact with it., and turned.