ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 9646, 11 February 1892, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

[Special to Press Association.] A RAILWAY DISASTER. BUCHAREST, Fbb. 9. A sleeping-carriage of the express train between here and Braila caught fire, and eighteen of the occupants were killed, either by tbe fire or in attempting to escape. A BRIGANTINE WRECKED. [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Feb. 10. The Auckland brigantine Ryno, Captain A. Tribe, haa been wrecked at Flint Island, where she went ashore during a gale. The crew, and one passenger who was on board, landed safely. The master, mate and steward-set out in an open boat, and reached Huahine, one of the Society Group, whence they travelled to Papatee. The Ryno was under charter to Mefata Arundel and Co., in the guano trade. THE MOUNT EGMONT FATALITY. NEW PLYMOUTH, Feb. 10.

The weather is very wet and the mountain is covered with clouds, so it is expected that the party will not get further than the tourists' hut, and not make the ascent to-day to get Mr Southwood’s body. Mr C. Smith, of Wellington, arrived by last night’s express, and hag identified several articles found on the body. Mr Smith, when in England, obtained the number of his nephew’s watch, and its maker’s name. Its works are in perfect order although the watch has been exposed for ten months. Amongst other things found on the deceased were ten £1 notes, a sovereign, four half-sovereigns, a halfcrown, a farthing, a quarter anna, a railway time-table, and a railway return ticket to Palmeratou North. NAPIER, Fee. 10. Mrs De Lisle, wife lot Dr De Lisle, had an apoplectic seizure to-day and died without recovering consciousness. SUPPOSED DROWNING. WELLINGTON, Feb. 10,

It is believed that Thomas Spruges, aged eighteen, a native of Christchurch, has been drowned in the Tiraumea river, in the Eketahuna district. He left the station on Peb. 6 for Woodlands, and was to call at the Waterfalls, but nothing more has been beard of him. His dog was found on the river bank. VICTIMS TO FOG. The docks must have been a perfect death-trap during the recent fog in London. One inquest after another swells the total of the list of drowned. The saddest in its details is that which was held by Mr Wynne E. Baxter on the body of a man named Berry, One night the poor fellow went to a post of duty, as a dock policeman, which was as dangerous as any post of battle. His sergeant took him to his beat, after having first provided him with a life-belt—a precaution which is, in itself, enough to show the desperate natnre of the service. He had hardly turned his back, when the unfortunate man sounded his police whistle, to signify that he had fallen in the water. The sergeant ran back with assistance to the edge of the half-frozen pool, but in spite of repeated efforts he failed to reach his comrade with a life-line. The life-belt had been imperfectly inflated; it began to shrink, and at last a voice came out of the thick darkness: “ I have got the cramp, good-bye, God help me. lam going,” and nothing was heard after that. One man after another perished at the docks in this or some such way. In another case, a railway labourer was cut to pieces while he was out laying fog signals, which no doubt helped to save countless lives. These humble dead were martyrs to duty in their unostentatious way. AN ALPINE ACCIDENT. During the last week in December an avalancbo swept away three young men on the Gemmi, a pass in the Bernese Alps. They wished to cross over the pass on their way home from the Berne side. All the local guides refused to accompany them, and tried to' tiissuade them from their foolhardy attempt, but in vain. Heavy snow had fallen two days previously, and several avalanches had swept down the mountain side the night before, so that any attempt to travel over the pass was hazardous in the extreme. A telegram inquiring about the young men arrived in Berne two days after they had started from the other side, bub they had nob arrived. Three experienced guides were accordingly sent out to look for the missing men. Half-way up the pass they found two hats and a stick, which they recognised as having belonged to some of the party. The guides then returned, but only succeeded in reaching a place of safety with very great difficulty. Wnat they had found showed that the tooventuresome pedestrians must have been carried away by an avalanche.