INQUESTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 83, 20 February 1862, Page 5 (Supplement)

INQUESTS.

JJEATII FHU3I KATIXG 1 UTtJ. An inquest was held on Monday, at the West j; Taieri,- on the body of a Frenchman, named!] Rigan, who had died at the back of Maungatua, | on Wednesday last, from the effects of eating tutu berries. ! George Wilson, also a native of Franco, de- > posed : That on the previous Wednesday lie, two s Dtlier men, and the deceased were on their way to the diggings by tho West Taieri Koud. . They , camped that night on the face of Maungatua and { ifter pitching the tent, witness and the deceased I, went down the side of the Mill and gathered some \ branches ofthe Tutu and brought them np to the j tent where they all tasted them. Witness and de- I sensed, then went np the hill, while their mates f were preparing tea and cat heartily ofthe berries, * plucking them" off ihe plants. When tlie witness * had eaten sufficient he returned to tho tent leaving ' the deceased still eating tho fruit. He remained , about five minutes after the witness, and shortly j afterwards he complained of a swimming in his c head. Ho tried to eat something, but said he could r not do it as everything appeared to be turning i: round. He then"lay down and iv a few minutes I ifterwards fell into'a fit. Witness aud his other v mates thinking he might be subject to fits threw <■ 3old water on his face, and did all they could s to bring him too, not having any idea that the fit was the result of the Tutu which he had T ;aten. In a few minutes the deceased came j, ;o, but almost immediately relapsed. From 0 ;his latter fit, he only partially recovered, when he s ooked very vacant, and soon after went off r. igain. Witness then ran up to a tent on the top v )f the hill to get assistance, and he mentioned to v ihe men there, that they had all eaten of the Ij Futu, and the men told him that it was probably Jl ihe cause of the illness. The men in the tent P hen returned with him, and they found the de- ' v leased in strong convulsions, so strong that he _ md to be held down. The witness himself was t . hen taken ill, but was not so bad as the deceased, t -though he had two fits, and was insensible ti luring the night. He had vomited a great deal, |t; mthe did not think the deceased had done so at^l 11. " When the doctor came next morning, the " eceased was dead, and witness was nearly well. ° Daniel Soaarez, another of the mates of the eceased, corroborated the statements of the jj irevious witness, and stated that he had known j c he deceased, —who was a Frenchman—for about ~-- ight years. He did not know the Christian lame of the deceased, although he had been with p lim both in California and Australia. In Sydney t hey had both lodged in the house of a man a. lamed Lion, George-street, and while there, he t] ad seen the deceased leave a pocket-book and " ome papers in the hands of the Italian Consul, £: ; hose name he did not know. No one had ever ; , Did him that the Tutu was poisonous, or none of j{ hem would have eaten it. He had not seen any 0i losters warning parties. They were all per- a , ectly, sober at the time. The deceased did not tl omit at all. During the fits he foamed at the tl nouth. n Dr. James Shirley said he had been called to o; he tent of the deceased on Thursday morning, P tut the deceased was dead when he arrived there. £ Dhere were no marks of violence on the body, 0 ; ,nd the eyeballs were dilated as if from the effects c , f narcotic irritant poison. He had not made a \ wst mortem examination as it would be useless, ti mless the contents of the stomach could be an- o .lysed, and he believed there was not an analytic b hemist in the province. He knew the tutu to 1« ie poisonous. f1 After hearing the foregoing evidence, the jury " eturned the following verdict:—"That the de- a eased died from the effects of eating the tutu !, ilant," the jury also requested the Coroner to , v iresent a petition to the government praying - hem to take such necessary steps as would warn a trangers coming into the colony of the poisonous a i.ature of the tutu plant, the berries of which tl iave already caused serious illness to nine per- tl ons in the West Taieri district within the last si line weeks, one of which has proved fatal. I Death by Dkownixg at Poet Chalmers. a An inquest into the circumstances attending t( he death ofthe seaman, who was found drowned o t Port Chalmers on Monday, was held at the a lotel there, on Tuesday, by the District Coroner, i' From the evidence it appeared that the de- " eased, whose name was James Fleming, had ex- ." ressed to his mates on board the Young . America, lying at Port Chalmers, his intention _ f escaping from the ship, and showed one of j liem a life-buoy which he had manufactured out k f cork and canvas, to enable him to swim g shore. Subsequently he was missed from the v hip. Another attempted'to escape, but he was ceized with cramp in his leg?,-and wa. obliged J 1 o cut the clothes from his body and call out for '■, ssistance, which was given him by a boat putting fj _ from the ship, and while that boat was re- * urning they found the deceased floating on the •') rater, with his back up and his head below the v , urface. He exhibited no sign of life, and all the _ ttempts made to restore animation were unsuc- n essful. That his death was caused by the swag h f clothes and belt with which he burdened liimelf was evident, and the jury returned the erdict of " Accidentally drowned." J