ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12241, 29 June 1900, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

About twelve o'clock on Wednesday night, as Mr Douglas Whitkw was on his way home, he discovered a. man lying on the railway line near the Show Crrounds. The man appeared to be in a deep sleep, and was snoring heavily. As Mr Whitlaw was unable to rouse the man, he informed Constable Ryan, who, on proceeding to the spot, found that the man was unconscious, and had a severe wound on the back of his head. He had evidently been lying on the line for some time, as when he was picked up the wound had ceased to bleed. A stretcher was procured, and the sufferer was taken to the hospital in the police van-. An examination of the spot failed to disclose any signs indicating that anyone had been walking along the line, but on some of the ballast stones, 'Constable Ryan found traces of blbcd and hair. Nothing which was found on the man served to disclose hU identity, but yesterday morning he was identified as a man named James Francis, who is supposed to reside in the Middleton district. On examination at the hospital, it was found 'that his skull was fractured, and no hopes are entertained of his recovery. Later inquiries have led to the 'discarding of the theory, which had been adopted, that the man fell off a train ; mi it is now believed that, while walking home, he fell alongside the railway line and was struck by a passing train. Francis is twenty-seven years of age, single, and since February had been working ■at the National Mortgage and Agency Company's stores at Addington. He was still unconscious late last evening, and ■was gradually sinking. It is feared that he will not regain consciousneKfe. No further 'particulars regarding the cause of the accident have been ascertained. Mrs Fear, of Woodend, was thrown out of her gig yesterday, and was severely braised. [Pee, Pbess Association.] DUNEDIN, June 28. Elizabeth Walker, five years of age, was killed in Great King Street by the wheel of an aerated water cart passing over her head. The child was crossing the street behind a tramcar when th& cart came up, and the driver did not see the child till the accident occurred. NAPIER, June 28. A man named Angus M'Na-ughton, about seventy years old, residing at Kaikoura, who had been at the races, by some means got into the water hear Taradale Bridge, and, when he was got out, life was extinct.