ACCIDENTS. &c.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9488, 10 August 1891, Page 3

ACCIDENTS. &c.

A remarkably narrow escape from drowning is reported by the Oamaru Mail. Three lads, John Grant and James and Allan Milmine, attempted to cross the Waitaki on July 18, the river being comparatively low, for a day’s hare shooting in Canterbury. The two brothers were ou one horse. About half-way across one of the streams the horse slipped and roiled over. Grant endeavoured to get near the brothers, but his horse refused. Meanwhile, James, the elder brother, got clear of the horse, caught hold of his brother and tried to clear him as well. This he bad great difficulty in doing, as the lad kept a firm grip of the animal under the water. He, however, succeeded at last, and with one hand he kept the boy’s head above water, and managed to get him safe to land.

Mr Frank Oakden, Manager of the Milburn Lime and Cement Company, who is well known in Christchurch, met with an accident at Dunedin on July 14, whereby r be sustained a fracture of the right leg. He. was riding along lower High street, and when opposite the Daily Times Office the. horse slipped and fell on the leg of tffie rider, thus causing the injury. Mr Oakden was conveyed to the hospital, where the broken limb was set by Dra Gordon Macdonald and Copland, and subsequently ,the sufferer was conveyed to hia borne. A rather singular circumstance in connection with the accident is the faot that Mr Oakden had only on the previous day taken out a policy for .£IOOO in the Standard Accident Insurance Company. As, a result of his forethought ho will receive £Q per week during the time he is incapacitated from work.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT. Ahyoung woman named Ellen Weston was rim over by a hansom in Manchester street about 10 p.m. on Thursday, July 00, and; seriously .injured. The hansom was ; owned and driven, by Charles Lawrence, who was returning from Lancaster Park with a fare at the time of the accident. He states that when he reached the junction of High and Manchester streets two trams met. The one going from town ran ou to the Manchester street line to allow the one coming from the Park to pass, and he had to go on the wrung side of - the road to avoid them. As he was passing the engine his horse shied and turned towards Manchester street north. The woman Weston and a man were standing on the footpath, and she, perhaps from fright, was unable to get out of the way of the cab, though the man who was with her called to her to look out. The wheel struck ber and knocked her down. She was picked up' unconscious, and Lawrence at once drove ber in his cab to the Hospital. Ellen Weston, the victim of the cab accident in Manchester street on Thursday, July 30, died at the Hospital on Saturday, August 1, at three o’clock. The next morning an inquest was held before Mr R. Beetham and a jury of whom Mr J. W. Mills was chosen foreman. The evidence of .Charles Lawrence, the driver of the cab, Hugh Millar, a young man who was in company of deceased, and Prank Evans, the occupant of the cab, went to show how the accident had been caused. Dr deEenzi stated the nature of fhe injuries sustained. A verdict of “Accidental death” was returned. THE LIT!ELTON CASE. Shortly after 12.30 a.m. on July 30, as a couple of railway clerks who had been at work late, were going home, they found lying on the pavement abreast of the Mitre Hotel a man in an unconscious state, and, upon raising him, they recognised him to be Mr T. A. W. Parsons, licensee of the Mitre Hotel, who was in : a fearful state, blood flowing from his’ head and face. The injured man was. carried into the house and Dr T. : O. Guthrie, and his brother, Mr As W. Parsons, were sent for, and the doctor at once dressed the wounds. Shortly after being taken to his 1 bed, Mr Parsons recovered consciousness sufficiently to answer the questions of his brother and Dr Guthrie, but could not give the least idea of how, or from whom, he received the fearful injuries from which he is now suffering. In their investigation of the matter the police of course turned their attention to ascertaining if any robbery had been committed, but they found that Mr Parsons had a quantity of money in his pockets untouched; consequently, if he was set upon, it was not with the object of plunder. Mr Parsons became conscious on July 31, and was thus able to disclose sufficient to dispel the idea of his injuries having been inflicted by other means than an accident. Though in a very weak state, he was able to tell bis brother and others that he fell over the balcony. He says he was sitting by the fire in one of the upstairs rooms, when he heard a noise as though someone was entering the hotel door. He jumped up' from his seat and weno out on .to the balcony, from which he must have fallen before he had properly recovered from the effects of the sleep. The nature of his injuries points to the conclusion that he fell on his knees and chin, for the jaw bone is fractured immediately below the mouth, and both knees are badly bruised.

DANEVIEKE, July 20. A shocking accident happened here yesterday. A man named Smith, a bush contractor, wag out shooting with his two sons. They were coming home for dinner, when the father said he must get another bird. The youngest boy, Frederick Charles, rushed by, saying, “I see a pigeon.” Immediately the gun went off, the charge entering the head of the boy, who was eleven years old, behind the ear, killing him instantly. The lad was only a few feet distant at the time. WELLINGTON, July 30. A lad named Morrison, aged tea, whoso parents reside in the Tiaukori road, was drowned off the Esplanade, near the Manawatu ~ railway station, this morning.

A younger brother had fallen into the water, and he jumped in to rescue him. The former was rescued by a passer-by, who did not see the latter; and it was not until the younger recovered sufficiently to tell what had happened that it was known that the second boy was in the water, and search revealed the body.

1 BURIED IN AN AVALANCHE. DUNEDIN, August 3. News was received in town last night of ‘ a sad affair on the Eyoburn ranges, i 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 Boer. 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 wore 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 the ridge of ranges, and a closer search revealed the fact that the three had either fallen over a cliff some fifty feet high or, what seems more probable, that, 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 the three were dead when discovered ; but on this point the information received is not definite. A later telegram says that the bodies of Alphonso Beer (aged 20), Robert Blanchard (20) and James Meikle (18), have been discovered. Blanchard was found embedded in six or seven feet ‘of snow, about a chain from where Beer’s body was found; while Meikle was dis- | covered some twenty or thirty yards further up. The body of Thomas Meikle, aged 14, is nob yet discovered. The three first-named belonged to a search party of nine, and disappeared from the view of their companions by the snow giving from under them, and completely enveloping them in the 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 Meikle’s body showed no marks of injury, and it is thought he must have lived some time after reaching the bottom. August 4. The lifeless body of the younger Meikle was found yesterday. Four dogs were with him, one of them lying right across the lad’s body. THE LOSS OF THE COMPADEE. INVEECAEGILL, July 9. An inquiry was opened this morning, before Mr Eawson, E.M., and Captain Norman McDonald, regarding the loss of the Compadre. Hr J. Borrio, Collector of Customs, conducted the proceedings, and Mr Hall, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the master. Captain Jones gave evidence of the breaking out of the fire in the hold on March 16, of the fruitless efforts made to extinguish it, and of the storm that struck the vessel on March 18, carrying away the foresail and sweeping the deck of everything movable. While it raged the vessel was frequently on her beam ends. Before he ran the ship ashore the water in the forecastle was up to the armpits. He would have reached New Zealand easily enough in spite of the fire, bat for the storm. Even with a moderate gale, he would have made the Bluff or Port Chalmers. He did not know whether the vessel or the cargo was insured. Hia effects were not. Jute bags are very dangerous cargo to carry, and liable to spontaneous combustion. Two years ago a vessel left Calcutta, bound for the same destination, with a similar cargo, and has never been heard of since.

The inquiry into the loss cf the barque Compadre was finished to-night, the Court finding that the wreck was primarily caused by the discovery of fire having compelled the captain to alter his course and make for a New Zealand port; that a gale from the north-wefet drove the vessel on to the Auckland Islands; and that the small amount of canvas she could carry, and the quantity of water in the hold, making it impossible to keep her off shore or clear the island, the vessel was beached to save life. Captain Jones and his officers were found blameless in the matter, the Court expressing the opinion that they had done all that was possible to save the vessel.