ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10112, 10 August 1893, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

[Pee Piuses Asiootamom.l BLENHEIM, August £b ; Hews was received in town this aw®* noon of a sad accident which happenedat A waters to-day. It appears from the; meagre particulars to hand that a youngf, man named Dennis O’Leary, who bad beoftj working in the vicinity, was attempting, to cross the Awatero river about two, o’clock, on borsebaok. All went well until.' 1 the middle of the river was reached, wheal the horse was seen to rear up and fall; back into tho stream, both horse and. rider being drowned. The unfortunate young man’s age was' twenty-one. The , body has not yet been recovered. An inquest was held at Oxford on Tuaa-, day before Mr J. E. Gorton, acting* Coroner, and a jury of whom Mr Obarloa' Gorton was chosen foreman, touching tho] death of Annie, daughter of Mr James Neil, of the village settlement near Oxford*. The evidence or the father* which was] corrobomtsd by Mrs Purvis and Mt.‘ Howard Rees, proved tba'i tho deoea&eilj had received every necessaiy attention,■, but the fact of her having been attended' by a gentleman who did not possess a! diploma, although possessing medical] knowledge and considerable experience,; necessitated an enquiry in order that ftj certificate of death might bo obtained. Coroner, in Gumming up, said that it wma advisable in all serious cases to engage duly qualified men, lu order to avoid the, disagreeable necessity of holding a judicial enquiry chould death result. The jury] returned a verdict of “ Died from nature! causes.” _