PAHAUTANUI.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 6690, 26 September 1882, Page 3

PAHAUTANUI.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) September 25. Mr William Gilchrist, a carrier between Otaki and Wellington, met with a serious accident in the Horokiwi Valley, on Wednesday, evening last, soon after dark. He .was on bis road to Wellington, and, as he was travelling down bill at the time, he had fastened two of his horses behind the cart. . Hearing another vehicle coming from the opposite direction, he drew aside towards the gully to make room for it to pass. He was holding the horse in the shafts by the bead, bat, as soon as the parsing vehicle got alongside, the horse got startled and commenced backing, and at last the dray and horses all went down the gully together into the stream. The place they went down was a fall of over forty feet, and was nearly perpendicular. Hr Frank Smith was the occupant of the trap which had met Hr Gilchrist, and he hastened with down the gully to render assistance. They found the dray upside down, thrown across the stream on to the opposite bank, and it rant have turned one or two somersaults in going dawn. They had great difficulty in getting the horse out of the shafts, as he was lying on his back, and all the harness jammed tight. Ail the horses were very much shaken, and one of them, which cost £3O, was so much injured that it died the next day. The dray was not injured in the least, but the nature of the load accounts for that. It was piled up with hides and sheepskins. Hr Gilchrist is a very steady; careful driver, and great sympathy is expressed for him. The settlers at Pahautanui have started a subscription list towards making up his loss, and, no doubt, the settlers will do the same at Otaki and other pacts of the road. The election of a Warden for No. 2 Ward in the Highway Board came off on Friday last, in the schoolrooms, Pahautanui and Faikakariki. The result was—George Jones, 55 ; James Pearce, 20. Majority for Mr Jones, 35.