Accidents and Fatalities.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 237, 11 December 1896, Page 2

Accidents and Fatalities.

Gisborne, December 7. A partly demented Maori woman named Akenhei Keating, wife of a European, met with a horrible death at North Gisborne. Her husband said he gave her her dinner on Saturday afternoon. He had to feed her, as she was helpless, and when she sat or laid down he had to lift her up again. She had been in that state for the past two years, but had been worse for the past month. He then left Gisborne, and, returning home at five o’clock, missed her. He looked round, and, seeing smoke in the orchard, he rushed there, and found her lying on her back, and her dress on fire all round her. She was dead, lying in a dry trench a few inches deep. The grass was long and dry, and would burn very quickly, but he could not account for it taking fire. He supposed she was smoking and threw a lighted match into the grass. She was iu the habit of smoking, and was frequently in the orchard. She was about 65 years of age. A verdict of “ Accidental death by burning ” was returned. Napier, December 7. At the inquest on Louis Oautle it was shown that he had been drinking, though he got nothing at the hotels, and his friends could not discover who got the liquor for him. When the supply failed he drank chlorodyne and “ painkiller,” and was under the influence of these drugs when he com-* mitted the deed. A verdict of temporary insanity through excessive drinking was returned. Auckland, December 7. At an inquest on James Liddle, butcher on the steamer Te Anau, who fell over the wharf into the sea at two o’clock on Saturday morning while attempting to go on board the steamer, and who was rescued and taken to the hospital, where he died, a verdict was returned of “ Death from pneumonia, the effect of submersion, but there is no evidence to show how he got into the water.” Dr Hooper gave evidence that Liddle’s condition indicated a state of intoxication.

Dunedin, December 7. William Hull, a miner, was found dead in his house at Clyde. Francis R. Dawson, six year old, was drowned at Lawrence to-day.