ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9084, 2 December 1909, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

About 9.30 o'clock on Tuesday morning a fatal accident occurred at the stables of J. J. Craig, Ltd., in Beach-road, Auckland, which resulted in the almost instantaneous death of the foreman, Mr George Leyland. The cause of the accident was the giving away of a portion of a loft which was carrying sacks of oats. Mr Leyland had noticed that tho loft was cracking, and had just inetructed an employee named A. J. Newton to saddle a horse and ride right away to secure the services of a carpenter. Mr Newton had ridden from underneath the loft, when it gave way, and the sacks of oats came down with a crash that,soon caused a largo crowd to congregate. The deceased was underneath the loft, talking to an employee named James Crawford. Suddenly realising what was about to happen, both jumped into separate stalls amongst the horses. Almost instantly the whole mass of sacks of oats came down. Leyland was hoard to shout: "I am killed! I am killed!" and then there was silence. . From the naturo of his injuries it is almost certain that death came immediately afterwards. Crawford escaped unhurt, the sacks of oats not reaching the stall into which he had jumped for shelter. The deceased was a married man with two children, and was much esteemed for his uprightness of character. The genuine sorrow expressed by several of his mates after the accident testified to his good qualities, "A real white man" being the most "frequentlyused term.