Untitled

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 115, 13 May 1912, Page 5

. .James O'Meagher, Bo:rough foreman, said he had known the deceased "for_ about;- 31 "yeara, -a;nd assisted the police in .th© search. The witness found the Hbody at 'about 2 p.m. yes:ierday, Abating' in ■T&e^GpSSv-ist?:Jtivelfv in ■"<&. bend on the north side, below the Opawafa Jberthiug(place. H©; ; 'sent word to the police, and was present when the body, was recovered. <■ It was fully clotilied, except for the hat. For many years the deceased was a sober kind industrious wdrkmkn,; ;but latterly had become addicted, to drink. He was an inoffensive man, and had1 no enemy that tlte witness was aware of. He. :saw tihe deceased absolutely non .compos mentis about eight months ago, and if he was in the same condition he might have fallen in the river. He was of ' opin- ■ ion that t£ie movemeritfs of the. s.s. j Opawa yesterday caused the body to i ■rise., ■ . .. ■ : ■ :. ■■ ■■ \

James Sylvius Hickey, only son of the deceased,: said he last saw his father on Wednesday, May lstl at 10.40 a.m., coming'from the directdbri of Mr Yarrall's. The deceased was then quite sober; On Friday evening, the 3rdanst., he reported his father to be missing, and assisted in the search. It was his father's custom to go home regularly. He had never known him to be absent a night from his home. He could not say what his condition was when ho was supposed to be lost.. He had' not seen the body since. His- father never' suffered from insanity, "and till© witness had never heard of his threatening to ■commit suicide. Hi£ father could not- swim. He did hot attribute his death to the action oi an enemy, or the result of a quarrel. He identified the watch, chain, knife, iand pipe. The deceased "owned a house, and an acre and a-half at Redwoodtown, and had a wife and a married and single daughter. m Constable Doggett: said that he assisted to t recover the body and take it to the Hospital morgue. the clothes contained, a watch and chain, •a/pipe, a knife, and 2s 6d in silver. The body was in a very decomposed condition.; The scalp had been torn off the skull. ,'■■; Both 'arms and th« c right leg appeared to;/be brokeii, andJ the> left.groin -was; torriv bpeni": ;TK« I woundv«! seemed ifeo- have been caused' after deaths possibly by.the- propelled of the steamer.. He. thought that death was caused by drowning'^' J .c! [The inquii-v; was adjourned until-10 o'clock on ■ Wfdir^sday '■ morning for the purpose of -the' post mortem examination, and authpritv was. given to inter the body when this, examination had he^i completed.