Accidents and Offences.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 12

Accidents and Offences.

The following is from the Clutha Leader : — "We regret to have to report the occurrence of a serious accident at Kaitangata on Wednesday night. It appears Mr Lennan, assistant to Mr Hislop, storekeeper, went to Wangaloa in the morning with a spring-cart with goods. About 9 o'clock in the evening one or two of the residents of Kaitangata heard a noise ■proceeding from the direction of the road above the township, but attached no importance to it. Yesterday morning about 8 o'clock a lad named Johnston ,found Lennan . lying in a gully, about two chains from the road, and within a stone's throw of Dr Eobertson's house. He was then quite insensible, and continued Bo| during the day. He was attended by Dr Robertson, who did all that was possible for the sufferer. Wo may add that farther down the gully the horse was found lying with his neck broken, the cart smashed, and the goods scattered about. It seems the breeching was found broken, and it is surmised that this was the cause of the accident." We hear that the sufferer was easier yesterday, but very little hopes are entertained of his recovery. The Oamaru Times very properly calls attention to the carelessness shown by the railway officials in the case of the man Peter M'Kenna, who was run over on the line the other day and : killed. It says : — " The evidence shows that both the enginedriver and the fireman of the train that ran over the ,man were aware that they had struck against something lying on the line. They appear to have thought it must have been a sheepor a dog. At anyrate the .train was not stopped, and 1 although the incident was reported to the guard three minutes afterwards, when Oaina'ru was reached, even then nothing was thought of it: All the Hisual routine of work was gone through, andjit was not till, the engine^ as a', matter' of course, was on its way back to Timaru that the case was looked into. On the way back, however, and ,when it reached ' the spot where the accident had occurred the "engine was stopped, and then the employes found the man, picked him up, and brought him back to Oamaru. In all such cases the train should be stopped at once. At any rate we trust we may never again hear of any of the local trains rupning over a man, thinking ho might have been a sheep Or a dog, and then coolly deforcing until its return journey an examination of the sc'ono of the acoident. In some cases snoh conduct would be nothing less than culpable homicide." Fatal Aceidont at Port Chalmers. One of the firemen of the s.s. Arawata was accidentally drowned on the 16th through mistaking the hulk Henbury.for the, s.s. Hero, outside of which vessel the Arawata was mobred. The deceased man, James Dimond, in company with Adam Gardiner, 'secretary to the Seamen's Union ; George Tuck, another fireman; a.nd Albert Beard, apoaVtrhnmer,was, passing down, the BowenPierat about 1.15, a.m.,,and had got abreast of .the Henburyi wheahecalled.out to his companions, "I am* going my way,", and jumped' on board, mia^ taking, the other, men think, the hulk for the steamer Hero; and .almost immediately,they< heard a> noise as though the deceased iwas fall-, me oyer the, cQalj on followed „by a splash. The men at once jumped on to ,the hujk andthrew the bight of<a hawser, toiwhich • he'clung for about five minuj;es ; and Constable Oqlborne, whoihearathe nbise, atpnee jumped into a boat, and," although she was- without oats,, managed' to. paddle her round to tha Henbury, but unfortunately the poor fellow> hadilost his hold of , .the rdpe and. sunk abd,ut a ininute before Constable Colbornei reached thjeside of .the hulk. iHe then' procured „the. drags, and .after an hour's work succeeded mi repovering the body. > Sergeant Hanlon at onoe Rent for .Dr Davios, who examined the remains and pronounced life extinct. Tho body was then taken to the morgue. The deceased is believed to have been a married man, having a wife and two children in. Glasgow. No inquest is considered necessary by the authorities, Attempted Murder at Chatham Islands. By the steamer Akaroa, which arrived at Lyttelton on Friday morning from the Chatham Islands, the following news is received of an attempted murder there :— On the night of March 7th, a carpenter, named William Gordon Jacobs, the owner of a block of land, fired four shots from a revolver, three with tho object of killing his wife and one at his son. The firing was done from outside the house at which Mrs Jacobs and her boy were staying at the time, and the first shot hit her on the breast and glanced along, passing through her left breast and out under the armpit. The direction of the ball was thus turned by coming in contact with the woman's corsets. The second shot hit the table in the room, and at that moment Jacobs' boy ran to the door and called, "Don't, papa— don't," when Jacobs turned the pistol towards him and fired, but _ fortunately missed his son. After sending another ball through the window of the dwelling, he decamped. It seems le returned to his own house, and told his family that their mother and brother Willie wore "no more," and that before the morning he himself would be dead. He next took some cartridges and a loaf of bread, and started off into the bush, where he was captured the day following by Messrs Moore,' Todd, and Shane. Jacobs was brought before the magistrate and formally committed for trial. He would probably be sent on to Lyttelton in the brigantine Omaha. Mrs Jacsbs was attended by Dr Cooper, and when the steamer left was on a fair way to recovery. The husband and wife had not lived on good terms together for some considerable time previous to Jacobs' attack upon her. She had separated from him a few days' previous, and betaken herself to a neighbour's house, the, place .tho attempt, on, her" life' "was made.' They have' a family* of eight children, for whom a good deal of sympathy is felt.— Press. Drowning near Invercargill. Inveucakgili,, March 20fch. News was received yesterday afternoon of an accident on the New "River, a few miles from town, resulting in tho loss.of three lives. A party, consisting of a young man named Henry Ackers, his sister (aged fourteen), his brother (aged seven), and a young' man named William Smith, went out in a sailing-boat. They intended to go to the ferry, two or three miles distant, but had not gone far before tho boat was caught by a gust of wind and turned over, going down in 20ft of water. As soon as the boat rose H. Ackers, who is a good swimmer, made for his sister and carried her to the boat, tellin her to cling to the mast. He then did the same with his brother. Smith had hold of the boom, and the woightofthefoureausodtheboallo go under. At this point tho accident was noticed from .shore, and a boat put off propelled by a boy named Colin Brown. H. Ackers took his 111 1 brother and. sister, one under each arm, and ' j

endeavoured to keep them afloat by treading water ; but the wind rising made the water rough, and he overbalanced and sank, the children going down under him. They slipped their hold, and although Ackers dived after them he could not reach them. On regaining the surface he observed Smith 20 yards away, and told him to float on his back. , Smith replied, " I can't." By this time young Brown's boat had reached Ackers, who told him never to mind him but to go and save Smith. He managed to get the bow of the boat up to Smith, when the latter sank and never rose again. Ackers was then persuaded, with difficulty, to enter, the boat. The ; bodies of .the girl j and Smith . were subsequently! regovered.' , ,<• > ' '. • * > , -