ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1321, 24 June 1897, Page 28

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

FOUND DROWNED.

The body of a man named James Hobbs, an inmate of the Mount View Asylum, was found floating in the harbour early on Saturday morning by John Kelly, the keeper of the hulk Alameda. Mr Kelly recovered the body, and Constable Pearce conveyed it to the Morgue, where an inquest was held in the afternoon before Mr James Ashcroft. Coroner. Mr M. Maokey was chosen foreman of the jury. John Kelly and Constable Pearce gave evidence as to the recovery of the body, which was cold and stiff when taken out of the water. Life had been extinct for some time.

Emily Hnbbs, the wife of tho deceased, said be had been in the Asylum for 13 years, and was in tho habit of coming home on Saturday. He came home on Friday, and left at 4.30 in the evening to go back to the Asylum. She had never known him to have any Buicidal tendency. He was quite sober when he left. He was 52 years of age. Thomas Kelly, head keeper at the Asylum, said the deceased did not obtain leave to go out on Friday, but not being under close supervision, he got away. Witness did not think much of the deceased's absence, as he always returned. Dr Hassell, Medical Superintendent of the Asylum, said the deceased was physically in very good health, and was an excellent bricklayer. He had often been allowed out. He was highly indignant at being brought back, because he did not return one night about a month previously. He had not been allowed out since. He used to be an inmate of the Porirua Asylum, and was allowed out from Saturday till Monday. He always returned safely. Witness had examined the body, and saw no marks of any kind, He did not think the deceased had committed suicide. He probably got too much liquor from some friends, as he was very well known. The jury returned a verdict of found drowned.

A. six-year-old son of Mr B. M. Litchfield met with an unfortunate accident last week by falling over the bannister of the stairs, a distance of 8 to 10 feet. Dr James was promptly in attendance, and on examining the child he found that he had sustained a slight concussion of the brain, but fortunately no bones were broken. The little fellow will be confined to his bed for several days. Just as the minds of tho people were centred on bonfires and illuminations on Monday night, a tremendous glare was observed in the northern sky in close proximity to the city, and it was at once seen that a serious fire was in progress. It transpired afterwards that tho splendid twelve-roomed house at Khandallah, owned by Mr R. Hannah and occupied by Mr J. C Gavin, Assistant Auditor and Controller-General, had been totally destroyed, together with the stables and outhouses with which it was surrounded. The origin of the fire is a mystery. It apparently started in an upstairs room, and, fanned by the high wind blowing, speedily took possession of the whole building. There was very little saved, beyond a piano and a few articles from the drawing-room ; the collection of curios and nick-nacks of a lifetime were destroyed. We understand that the building was insured with the New Zealand Insurance Company for £BOO and the furniture in the same office for .£7OO. Auckland, June IG.

Mr R. M. Houston. M.H.8., accidentally fell down a flight of steps at Awanui and

broke one of bis ribs. He is now slowly recovering at bis home at Mangonui. A young- man named Anderson was found in an unconscious state in Campbell's stables, Waihi, last night. He had been kicked by a horse, and his skull was fractured. His condition is critical. ! "" Auckland, June 17. ! A young man named Edward Breakwell, j grocer, Symond street, has committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. Deceased / leaves one child. He started in business as . a grocer only last Saturday. Ohristchurch, June 17. An elderly woman named Mrs Hepburn died sxiddenly to-night. Oheistchitkch, June 18. Yesterday afternoon a woman named Mra Janet Hepburn, who was liberated from Sunnysido Asylum |on leave, was missed from

her daughter's residence on the South Belt, and later in the day she was found dead in an empty outhouse at the rear of the premises. fcr Hokitika, June 1G.?2 W. Harper, an old resident of Kanieri, was found suffocated in his bed yesterday morning. Evidently he had been reading in bed and fallen asleep, and his candle burning down the box took fire, and the smoke suffocated him. The flames were ascending the wall when the neighbours entered. ~ DtJNEDiN, June 17. vv-At the inquest on Hanna JVTaria Godfrey, wife of a dairyman at Pine Hill, who died suddenly yesterday, the evidence showed that the deceased had taken a quantity of aconite in place of the medicine prescribed for her. A verdict was returned that the deceased committed suicide while in a state, of temporary insanity. ( Dunedin, June 20. White, M.A., committed suicide on Saturday evening by taking poison. She had been for some time past coaching students,

-1 and it is understood was doing well. She was a graduate at the Otago University. Dtjnedin, June 20. Miss Marion "White, who committed suicide on Saturday by taking poison, had had a brilliant academic career. She was a Provincial University scholarship-holder, and gained her M.A. with honours. For some time she has been overworked, having to support two younger sisters. She studied chemistry and had plenty of poisons in the house, but on Saturday she purchased an ounce of prussic acid, and took it. In a letter addressed to Dr Colquhoun she analysed her mental feeling, and indicated that the deed was premeditated. She stated that fate was pursuing her, and she felt she must die. In another letter to a member of the medical profession she gave directions aa to how her wishes were to be complied with

after h er death, and conveyed pathetic farewells t( > friends. Miss White was 28 years of age, an d it ia known that for some yeara she has hacL a hard struggle for bare existence. June 21. At the-inquest on the body of Miss Why to, a verdict was roturned of suicide while temporarily insane. The medical witnesses found it impossible to say what poison had been usod. If the dregs found in the glass were the remains of poison, it was not prussio acid, some of which she had purchased on Saturday. [The late Miss Marion White, whose untimely and tragic end. atDunedin has aroused the greatest sympat by, was well known to many residents of V7ellington, who have received the news of her sad fate with the keenest regret. Miss White was shortly to have paid a visit to friends in W e l^ n gton.] Napier, June 18. The West Clive H otel, owned by Eobjohns and Sons, and in occupation of Norah Mackay, as licensee, was totally destroyed by fire at 4 o'clock this morning. The insur-

anoea were—Building, .£I2OO, Standard (of which J 8250 was reinsured with the South British Company) ; .£250, New Zealand ; .£SOO, Alliance. Furniture—«£ 150 in the 1877 Company Hamburg ; .£550 in the North German. Of the latter amount .£275 was reinsured with the Norwich Union Company.