INQUEST AT WAITAHUNA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 248, 6 October 1862, Page 5

INQUEST AT WAITAHUNA.

[communicated.] An inquest was held -this day,; 30th'Sept.,'at" the Miners* Arms Hotel, before Dr.r Samuels, Coroner for the Gold Fields,on theremafnsofahuman.being, found the previous day by a party, of.men who had descended the gully for the purpose of getting some water. The gully in iwhieh the deceased was found is about'two miles from 'Waitahoaa, and,'being-'.steep," it Is'supposed he slipped down, and was unable to rise owing to ttye seyerity of the weather. A man answering the same description was lost in July last, while on his way from the WooJshed to Waitahuna. . From the evidence of the witßessesrrHarris, Lazarus, and others—itproved to be the same person. This njan-is 'Louis Woolf, a native of :Gerniaay, but many years in England. On his person. wa3 found £2 in notes, and about 6a in silvex, besides several letters having the address " Louis Wcott,"Post,Qffico, Tokomairiro." The body was very much decomposed, and hard to be recognised. The verdic of t*>e jury was—" Died from cold and exposure." r

Ccßrous Death.- A curious death was proved before a cproner's; jury to have occurred. A stout, elderly woman, a Mrs Pringley^, housekeeper to Mr. Bennett, of Bath, was found lying dead in hei bedroom." 9er Jeefc were raised upon a chair, and her hea^, which was pressed forward upon her chest, was upon the ground. -She had evidently, whilst Bitting sideways noon the chair, rocked backwards, had fallen over, and broken her neck.

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: Bell^iUig bow ■ jrieing:"; cut ';* ;%^ay^ aidrtiae. mate^; rial deposited; upon^ih^^^^';^a^beon3mg is #iug made of pan Extensive Series of ;w;orks, for improving fbothihe^^ ingjandand deepening Channels, it may be briefly; to describe the wQjrks that; have been sanctioned by the Provincial Council,: and the small section of them which lias been beguu.n ' .tp. : *

We will take the latter first. '. The: jneiTeni gaged under the direction of Sir Swyer,:; tlte Pfo= ymc^l Engineer—arm the designer '■ of theplaris for the improvements generally---are getting soil from the Bell Hill with which to convert-rather more than 10 acres of beach inte streets and building sites. Opposite the Hill; an embankment will be .formed in line with High-street, until it reaches a point 132 yards from Princes-street, and it will then be carried parallel with that street; across the Kattray-street pier to.the north side of th*e hew jetty, a distance of nearly 300 yards. The embankment will be 6Ga. wide at the top, that being the intended width of the new- streets, and the slope of its sides will be 2to 1. The whole of the space we have indicated will not be covered with soilj but two other embankments will be formed at right angles to Princes-street, The building sites will be no further filled in than by ,the sloping sides of the embankments. If a purchaser desires deep cellarage, he will have but little material to remove, and thus the plan, while likely to be,generally convenient, will be far less costly to the government than if the beach were to be covered to a uniform level. -

Starting from the new line of street parallel with Princes-street, the works sanctionedby the Provincial Council will stretch 666 yards into the harbor, and will have a frontage of I ;100* yards —from a point opposite Walker-street, to 500 feet north of the Stuart-street jetty. The space enclosed will be 137 acres, and the plan of forming embankments only is proposed to be adhered to throughout. The 137 acres will be divided into 37-J- acres of docks, nearly 46 acres of streets, and 54 acres 327 yards of building sites. The embankments will hare an average height ofl4 feet, and will be faced with pitchers wherever exposed to the action of the sea during the progress of the works. One dock of 16£ acres, or 1,800 feet long by 450 feet wide, will have the new jetty protruding into it, and available for landing goods'; and another of 12£ acres, or 1450 feet long and 450 feet wide, will have the Stuart-street: jetty as its . central line. There will be. a third dock of eight acres or 2,000 ft. long by 175 ft. wide, of which the Kat-tray-stieefc pier will become the northern boundary. At present, there is 10ft. 6in. of water at high tide, along the line of the intended outer embankment ; and it is proposed to dredge away so much of the sand and mud as is necessary for securing an average depth of 10ft. within thedoclw Swing bridges will be fitted over the dock gates On each [side of the Jetty-street dock, there wili be only a single line of building blocks, of varying lengths, but with a uniform width of 132 ft. 5 and such a line, with a 66ft. street on each side, will form the division between the Jetty-street and Kattray-streeMocks. To the north of the latter, there will be two lines of street not fronting to docks, one of them being a continuation of Dow-ling-street; and two of the three rows of building blocks will have a width of 330 feet (bein» gene*rally squares) the third being 132 feet wide. The northern boundary of the sanctioned works will be a line similar to that between the Jetty-street and Rattray-street docks. The length of the new streets will be 5| miles, two miles bavinga dock frontage. In forming many of them, it js believe 1 that material dredged out of the harbour may be well and economically used. The sides of the embankments for a "surface width of 10 or 12 feet, beiog formed of material such as thjft.from Bell Hill, or from the High street cutting,-they will be effective retaining walls, betweenwhich the silt, &c, may safely be left to consolidate ; and thus the stuff got in deepening the harbor will be very conveniently disposed of.

The embankments will have a height of 3ft 6in. above high water level j and their cubical contents will be aoout a million and a half yards. The probable cost of the works, iucluding lock gates and swing bridges, and the metalling of the streets, has been estimated at £355,000. This sum would be mpre than repaid by the sale of the 54 acres of bnilding sites, supposing an average price of £7,000 per acre were obtained ; and it is assumed- that the average would very far exceed that sum.

The Government will, we believe, not carry out any portion of the works beyond that which we have described as now in progress. The rest will be let to contractors—when, being a question yet to be decided.