CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2104, 21 June 1894, Page 20

CASUALTIES.

Mr Hyman Napthali, in business at Napier for some years, died suddenly on the 13th. At the inquest the evidence went to show that deceased went out about 9 o'clock in the morning returning soon afterwards and shutting himself in in a front room where there was a gas stove. About noon a smell of gas was observed, and when the room was opened Napthali was found dead on the floor, the gas stove being turned full on but not lighted and the damper closed. A post mortem examination however, showed that the heart was in a shockingly diseased state and that death was duo to that accelerated by inhaling gas. A verdict to that effect was returned. [Mr Napthali, who was for many years a resident of Dunedin, took a prominent part in the affairs of the 1.0.0. F., and also in Freemasonry. He was a son-in-law of Mrs W. Isaacs, of Dunedin, and leaves a widow and three children.] An inquest was held at Lyttelton on the 13th touching the death of William Piggott, a fireman who died from scalds received while cleaning the boiler on R.M.S. Rimutaka. The jury returned a verdict that deceased came to his death by the accidental turning of a stopcock, which appeared to be quite unguarded. A rider was added that steps should be taken to secure the stop-valve of the boiler when being cleaned.

Richard Ryan, second mate of the barquentine Silver Cloud, died in the Christchurch hospital from the effect of a fall on the vessel on the 6th inst.

A horse and trap, owned by Arthur Newton, a dairyman, backed over the Auckland wharf. The horse was drowned. There was a child 18 months old in the trap, but it was rescued by three spectators, who jumped into the water and brought it ashore, very little the worse for its immersion.

A man named Samuel Busby sustained a fracture of the right leg on Friday at Canongate street. He was standing on a ladder cutting the branches from a tree, when the ladder slipped, and he fell to the ground. He was convened to the hospital, where he received medical attention.

Mr N. C. Jansen, a settler at Norsewood, while working on a ballast train, waß caught underneath the cow-catcher of the engine, and received fearful injuries, causing death shortly afterwards.

Two men named Cox were buried by a slip in a gravel-pit, at Martinborough, Lower Wairarapa, on Friday. One was got out much bruised, but the other, David William, 21 years of age, was found to be quite dead, the legs and body being crushed.

A man named Henderson had committed suicide on Saturday afternoon at Taukupu. George Henry Smith, who was arrested at Ashburton on Saturday on a charge of horsestealing, was found dead in the police cell on Monday morning. He had hanged himself from a bolt ring in the cell door, Uiing his handkerchief and a bit of calico a foot long. It was a most determined suicide, as he could have saved himself at any time by simply putting his feet to the floor. To accomplish his object he had to keep his knees firmly bent.

The inspector of police has received a telegram stating that Alexander Murray, of Moke Creek, Queenstown, died suddenly on Sunday night. An old map, at Wellington, Jabez Bradbury, who at one time carried on business as a dairyman, committed suicide at Eilburnie on Tuesday by hanging himself from the rafters in a shed on his property. He had been in a despondent mood of late. His married daughter, who had come to visit him, cut the body down, but life was found to be extinct". He had not been missed very long.

At the inquest touching the death of Mrs Annie Atkinson, aged 54-, who died at Christchurch on Saturday from the effects of a dose of "death to rats," a verdict was returned "That deceased died from arsenical poison, self-administered while temporarily insane."

An elderly man named Forbes Hill, driver of a cart, fell from the Auckland wharf on Tuesday to the deck of the steamer Kotuku, breaking his neck. Death was instantaneous.

Our Catlins correspondent writes : — •• A very painful case of suicide occurred late last week at Taukupu. A tenant of the Crown there by the name of Charles Henderson deliberately set fire to his tent and then shot himself with a fowling piece. When found the body was partly consumed by fire, the legs being nearly burned off, while the stock of the gun was completely charred. Our local J.F. goes out to hold an inquest. Henderson was long and favourably known in the Hindon district, but has been working about Catlins and Taukupu bush felling and road making for several years. He has been out of employment for some time, and was noticed by his neighbours to be queer in his manner of late. I knew the man well, and believe the idea of being under obligations he saw no way of repaying would prey on his mind very much. He was a tenant of a small bush section, and had, I believe, felled a good many acres, so would not like to leave it when employment failed him. It seems strange that men should be sent from all parts of the country to work almost; at this poor fellow's door and he have to endure enforced idleness and face want. I hope some light will be thrown on this point at the inquest . Henderson was a native, I believe, of Lanarkshire, Scot-

land, and was married in Cleator Moor, Cumberland, where his wife still lives."

William Garrara, an elderly man, died suddenly on Tuesday in a New Plymouth street, near the Wesleyan Church. Garram and his wife came from Auckland, but originally lived m Nelson. They kept a second-hand clothes shop in New Plymouth. Failure of the heart's action is supposed to have been the cause of death. '

James Scott, a miner, well known about Berwick and Waipon, was killed in the Waipori Amalgamated Deep Lead Company's claim on Friday evening. He went to work with the 4 o'clook shift. About 7 o'clock a fall of earth took place, which buried him. Death must have been instantaneous, as the unfortunate man was crushed into the water. Another man working with him had a very narrow escape. At the inquest the jury brought in a verdict of accidental death, and added as a rider that they considered the hydrant should have been placed at a higher level to ensure greater chance of escape to the men working in such dangerous ground. This expression of opinion will in due course be sent to Wellington for the consideration of the Mines department. It is, however, due to the manager to state that the evidence disclosed the fact that he warned the deceased and his mate at tho beginning of the shift not to go into the bottom of the claim that night. The inquiry was conducted by Mr F. W. Knight, J.P., and a jury of six, of whom Mr J. Ritchie was foreman.

There appears every reason to suppose that the identity of the man found drowned in the Ngarurora on the 9fch (says the Hawke's Bay Herald) will be satisfactorily established. A few weeks back a man named Peter Thomson, living with his wife and family at the Spit, left to go into the country to look for work. Before going he asked his boy to write on a piece of paper the words " Peter Johnson, born in Australia," and a date was added which the lad thinks was "1836." The paper found upon the deceased man bore those words and that date.