Sad Fatality.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7844, 23 May 1904, Page 5

Sad Fatality.

. Going, home by his usual road ok Saturday nigh c an old settler named Robert Lothian walked- to his uealh under lamentable circiimstan-. ees. He had -been for a lonn- time past in the habit of taking a short cut to bis home on Brightuater Terrace, across the paddocks skirt in" the railway gravel pit at Terrace iMid. It was pitch dark when lie went home on Saturday, and, losing Ins reckoning, Mr Lothian walked over the side of the pit. Where.he ell it was fully sixteen feet deep with: heaps of large stones. Palling on these, deceased was injured in the back, so much so that he was unable to move. He was not discovered till half-past eight on Sunday morning, wjhen his cries were heard and Constable Minogue and several residents hastened to his relief. Dr Graham was summoned and deceased was removed to the hosoital. At the institution everything possible was done to alleviate his sufferings and the effect of the exposure, but without avail, and death ensued just after mid-day. In addition to the injuries to his back, deceased broke in* arm and sustained several minor wounds aboiiM," - the head and body. He was quite conscious when found' and judging by. the macks of struo-1 §Img near where he fell, had made several determined efforts to <*et up Hie night had been bitterly cold and wet. rain falling in heavy showers, and when found deceased complained «f the suffering jlie had undergone during his hours of- exposure to the elements

31.r Lothian, who was about 55 years of age, leaves a widow.. He was a well-known resident of Terrace f-nd, and Mrs Lothian has received innumerable expressions of sympathy m her sudden bereavement.

At the inquest held this afternoon at the hospital Dr. Graham certified that death resulted from a broken back and was inevitable irrespective ot the exposure during Saturday iitffht. Without that cleceasea possibly may have lived for a week or so. He, had, also, sustained a compound fracture of the right arm. Search parties, looking for deceased, were out all Saturday nigfet, paddocks being- carefully traversed ■but strangely enough the gravel pit was not thought of. 3[oasuremonts taken by some of the jurymen show that deceased had fallen fully 20 feet.

(Left sitting)