INQUESTS.

New Zealander, Volume XXII, Issue 2318, 4 January 1865, Page 3

INQUESTS.

DEATH FROM THE FALL FROM A CART. Tub adjourned inquest on the body of William James Harcourt, who died sullenly from injuries receive 1 by a fall from a cart, was held yesterday, when the fo lowing additional evidence was obtained. Joseph Ewett, a boy ol about 12, sworn, deposed : I started from Onehunga with deceased at about 6 o’clock on Friday morning to come to Auckland. We were riding on a dray. We got to Auckland at about eight o’clock. Deceased was going to sell vegetables which he had brought with him. He sold the vegetables and then put a load of furniture into the dray for the return journey, at about 12 o’clock. Harcourt walked beside the cart until we came to the corner of the Kyber Pass, when he got on to the dray. I was driving all the time. When we got about half way down the Kyber Pass Hill we met two men with horses and empty carts. One of these men cracked his whip as ho passed, which frightened the horse I was driving. The horse ran away with the dray down the hill. I got on to the shaft and hold on as long as I could, but at last a piece of the furniture which I was holding by, gave way, and I was precipitated into the road. I fell under the dray, so that it went over me without touching me. Harcourt got on to the shalt, too, on the opposite side to me, namely, on the oft side. 1 cannot say for certain whether he tried to jump or not, because I was minding myself. When I got up, the cart was past him and he was lying on the right hand side of the road. Some one stopped the horse, and took it out of the cart for me. I got on the horse’s back and rode it home. I believe that decease! was sober when he left Auckland.

By a juror : When I went up to deceased he was insensible and unable to answer me. Thomas Moore Philson sworn: I am an M.D. of the University of Edinburgh and the Provincial Surgeon. About 7 o’clock on Friday evening last I was sent for by Mr. Fisher, the house surgeon, to visit deceased at the Provincial Hospital. I found him lying in a comatose condition, breathing stertoriously, pulse full 80 in the minute, skin warm, the pupil of the right eye somewhat dilated. He was unconscious. I found no external injury with the exception of a slight graze near the right eye. I concluded that he was suffering from compression of the brain, ami with a view to relieve this I drew about a pint of blood from his arm. No improvement in his symptoms followed. I ordered mustard sintpisms to the calves of his logs, put some' croton oil into his mouth and ordered an injection. All these remedies proved unavailing. The coma became more profound, and lie died at three o’clock on Saturday morning. On Monday afternoon I made a post mortem examination of the body for my own satisfaction. I was unable to detect any fracture of the skull, but over the hack part of the left hemisphere of the brain I found a considerable extravasation of blood. There was a quantity of blood also pressing upon the cerebellum and the upper part of the spinal cord, which, I believe, causing pressure on the brain, produced fatal coma. The extravasation might have resulted from several causes, hut, I believe, that in this instance it resulted from the fall. This concluded the evidence.

After consulting together for some time, the jury returned the following verdict“ That William James Hare urt came to his death accidentally by falling from a dray while the horse was running away.’’

FATAL ACCIDENT ON B >ARD THE ‘ SIR GEORGE GREY.’

An inquest was held by Dr. Stratfor 1, the Coroiier for the district, at the Provincial Hospital, on the body of Hans Christian Lavvson, a sailor on board the barque ' Sir George Grey,' who fell irom the yard arm on Monday. After the jury had viewed the body, the following evidence as to the cause of death, was obtained. John McGuinness sworn, deposed : I am a sailor on board the barque ' Sir George Grey.' I was working in the rigging yesterday afternoon. The carpenter and deceased were working on the main-top-gal-lant yard, and I heard a crash up aloft, when I looked in the direction whence the sound proceeded, and saw the carpenter and deceased fall from the yard. I turned my head away till I heard a noise on deck, and saw Hans Christian Lawson lying on deck, and the carpenter banging on to the rigging of the topsail yard. The deceased was insensible after the fall on deck. The mate of the vessel immediately sent to the guard-ship for a doctor, who came at once, and bandaged the legs of deceased. He gave orders that deceased was to be sent directly to the Pro v iucial Hospital. He was accordingly sent. Charles Lewis Bash sworn, said : I am mate of the barque ' Sir George Grey,' yesterday I ordered Hans Christian Lawsoa to assist the carpenter in slewing

the band of the top-gallam-ynrd. The yard had been I down on deck the day before the accident, to be refitted, ■ and when hoisted to its place aloft it was found that | one of the bands was slewed with the bolt underneath. I instead of over the yard, I spoke to the carpenter about slewing it round, and he told ine he could reet'fv the defect without lowering the yard. Before going up aloft the carpenter asked me if he could take deceased with him to assist him, and I gave permission. Just before the accident happened I spoke to the carpenter from the deck and asked him if he could slew the band round, and he said he had-nearly done it, and that he would have it finished in a minute. U th- same time he told deceased that he no longer required his assistance, A few minutes aiterwards while I was attending to my business, deceased fell on deck within a few feet of me. With the help of some of the men I picked him up and laid him on a bed in the forecastle and sent for the doctor on board the friga'e. While they were going for the doctor, I noticed that the carpenter was hanging on by the lift of the topsail yard. I sent assignee aloft, and got him down, and put him to bed. He is up to-day. He was slightly stunned, and very much frightened. Bv this time the doctor arrived and attended to Hans Christian Lawson, first. He bound up his wounds and ordered me to send him on a stretcher to the hospital as soon as p ssiblc. The doctor also saw the carpenter, and said that he could remain on board, unless he should be worse the following day. The cause of the accident was the breaking of the bolt connected with the band which holds the ton-gallant lift. As soon as it broke, the yard canted an 1 threw both men off. Robert Eliot Fisher, M.R.C.S, and hoHse-surgeon to the Provincial Hospital, deposed : Deceased vas brought on a stretcher to the hospital, at 6 p.m. yesterday, the 2nd January. He was suffering from a severe shock, the result of a fall. We put him upon a bed and administered stimulants, which lie swallowed with difficulty. Dr. Philson arrived immediately after his admission, when we proceeded to examine the injuries which he had sustained. Upon exnmiaatiou we found that he had suffered compound comminuted fracture of b >th legs, and a fracture of the right femor, with a great swelling of the soft parts. There was also a contusion over the right eye, and a wound in the sole of the right foot. We at once proceeded to put the legs in splints, and had just completed the work when he expired. The extreme shock and the injuries he had received were, I believe, the immediate causes of his death. This conclude! the evidence. The jury immediately returned the verdict—" That decease), Hans Christian Lawson, met his death accidentally by falling from the main-top-gallant yard of the barque ' Sir George Grey.'"