MR FOX AT WANGANUI.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 41, 19 February 1868, Page 2

MR FOX AT WANGANUI.

A public dinner was given to Mr Fox at the Oddfellows' Hall, Wanganui, on Wednesday evening last, in recognition of the services he has rendered to the colonists of New Zealand, and to offer him a welcome on his return to the colony. About 70 guests sat down, and Mr Fox made a long and very interesting speech in reply to the toast of the evening. Ou the following morning Mr Fox, on his return to Wellington by Cobb & Go's coach, with eight other passengers, sustained a most providential escape from destruction. We give the following account of the accident from the columns of the Wanganui Times of Saturday last: — By half-past 8 o'clock the coach reached the Turakina hill, and shortly after commencing the descent came suddenly in frout of Mr Burr's dray, which was on its way upwards. The dray was drawn up as close in the cutting under the hill as possible, and the coach tried to pass outside it, nearly gmzing the near wheel of the dray, but unfortunately the ground under the outside wheels of the coach gave way, and ifr fell over. At that critical moment the king bolt which connected the fore and aft parts of the coach, providentially bent and drew out, leaving the body of the coach to be precipitated down an almost perpendicular precipice of over 40 feet. The driver acted with firmness and presence of mind; kept his seat and took his horses safely past the coach from Turakina, which was then on its way up, and ouly a short distance from where the accideut occurred. Had the horses been iiilowed to take head, a collision with the Turakina coach must inevitably have taken place. Mr Gilchmt and Mr Buller iußtantly jumped off the coach-box, and ran to the assistance of the other passengers, who, in the body of the coacb, were precipitated down the cliff; the coach in the descent rolled three times right aver. Had the horses and coach-box gone with it, some lives would modt likely have been lost The passengers were drawn jjp> by ropes, when it was found that one. had his leg

broken in two places, whilst all were severely bruised and shaken, with the single exception of a little child, eight or nine months old, who went right to the bottom of the precipice, and was found under the coach, quite uninjured and laughing. Mr Fox escaped with a severe bruise on the thigh, and of course, a shock to the entire frame, but about mid-day continued his journey to Wellington in a private conveyance.