ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXX, Issue 3921, 12 December 1899, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

THE DROWNING OP CAPTAIN OLESEN.

AUCKLAND, Monday,

Respecting the disappearance at Haipara of Captain Olesen, his boat was discovered yesterday on Fitzgerald’s Spit, alicfut three miles. from the ship. There cannot be any doubt he was accidentally drowned. He leaves a wife in Porsgrimd, Norway, having married three months before his departure on the voyage to New Zealand. His wife was to have met him in Liverpool on his arrival there. 4

The boat had evidently capsized through the mam sheet having, been made fast. When found the boat was half buried in the sand, and there were no signs of the captain’s body. It may be remembered that Captain Ole sen, who was master of the barque City of ilgra, left the vessel in one of the ship’s boats on the Ist inst., taking -ome fishing lines with him. He remained fishing near the barque for about twenty minutes, and then sailed across towards the opposite-shore. The ill-fated skipper had been in command of the City: of Agra for about a year. DUNEDIN, Monday ' A man named Henry Cowan, fell over a face at Bannockburn on election day. Ho was not found till midday on Friday Ho was alive then but died shortly after A. verdict of accidental- death was upturned. ■

The District Coroner (Mr James Ashcroft) held an inquest at Pahautanui yesterday on the body of the fourteen-year-old lad Frank John Robertson, who accidentally shot himself while out. shooting near Judgefora on Sunday with another boy twelve years of age,, under circumstances already reported. The evidence showed that the boys had their parents’ permission to use the gun; .which was an old muzzle-loader. The jury,.'Of■ which Mr James' Pearce was foreman, returned a verdict of accidental death, with the following rider, “The jury is of opinion that provision should be made by law that boys under sixteen years of age using firearms should be subject to fin© or imprisonment.” ' ‘ .