CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 28

CASUALTIES.

■ The inquest on John Morton, who was found dead at Lyttelton on the 14th, was concluded on the 17th, whenaletter was readfrpm the deceased to a resident in Timaru, stating that he intended committing suicide on account of troubles connected with money, and that he had previously attempted suicide, but had only made himself ill, and had been in the hospital, where the doctors did not find out what was really the matter with him. It was proved he had bought rough on rats at a chemist's shop in Christohurch. A. verdict of " Suicide by taking rough on rats " was returned. A labourer named Joseph Crabtree, who had been in bad health, died suddenly at Christchurch. He complained of being unwell on going to bed. His wife put a mustard plaster on his chest, but ho died a few minutes afterwards. The. child of Mr 0. Cornesh was injured at Te Aroha by the explosion of a dynamite cap picked up and which it was flattening with a hammer. A boy sitting by him was also wounded on the cheek. ' ' .■'.-., The 16 months' old son of Mr Clarke, biscuit manufacturer, Christchurch, was drowned on the 17th by falling into a bucket of ' water in the scullery at his father's house. - • ■ A young man, James Fitzsimmons, while bush felling at Binata, West Coast, was accidentally knocked down by a tree, and fell aoross' the blade of his axe, receiving a frightful gash in the upper and back part of the thigh. • - ' A man named Lewis Johnston was killed by. the upsetting of a dray at Oamaru, on Saturday. He was riding on top of a stack of timber, when the horses turned down a bank and upset the dray. The driver of the dray had his elbow dislocated and his arm broken: > An old man named James M'Qrath, who resides in Cumberland - street, had his ,lefi shoulder dislocated on Sundayjmorniug through) falling over a crumpled carpet in his own house. A painful and serious accident occurred on Monday at Hokitika, to a miner named M'Griggan. He was walking on the bridge on the Kanieri tramway, going to work, before daybreak. Blinded by a flash of lightning, he fell into the stream below aud sustained a compound fracture of the leg. He lay there for some time trying to attract attention, but failing in this, he crawled to the nearest house, and was soon conveyed to the hospital suffering intense pain, the bone pro-, trading from the flesh, but he bore it heroically. . An inquest was held at Oamaru on Monday touching the death of Louis Joensen, killed by the capsizing of a dray on the Cave Valley road on Saturday. The evidence went to show that deceased was a native of Denmark, about 60 years of age, a single man, and had been in the colony seven .years. A verdict) was returned that deceased .was accidentally killed, and, that no blame attached to the driver of the dray. .? . , A Maori woman named Were Poki, at Otaki, the wife of Roach, a halfcaste, out her throat on the 17th, but it is not a serious wound. ■■ , ,