CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 23

CASUALTIES.

Mr C. W. Wagstaff, of the firm oF Rhind aud Wagstsff, produoe agents, Lyfctelton, dropped dead about 9.30 p.m. on tbe 27th. The cause of d«<vth is supposed to be heart diiease. The Timaru Herald reports that a rather serious accident happened on Sunday morniug, 20th, to the Rot. W. Finlayiou, i Presbyterian minister (for the present) of ' St. Andrew's. While Mr FiuUysou w*s ! mounting 'at the manse gate, the horse, I usually a very quiet animal, plunged | violently and then sprang forward, causing the i reverend gentleman, who had only got into one | of the sfcirrups, to be thrown to the ground. The fall did not hurt much, but the horse in its exoitement leaped over Mr Finlaywon, and in doing so either struck or c tamped on the le-f fc side of his chest, fracturing or bruising several ribs. Miss Drewett, of Ornapere, Hokianga, was thrown from her horse. and dragged for some distance on the 24-th ult., succumbed to her injuries. The body of a male child, a few days old, was lound in a paper parcel floating off Firth's ■wharf, Auckland. At the iuquest the verdict of the jury was that the child was born alive, but there was no evidence to show how it came by its death. Mrs Harriet Roche, widow of the stationmaster at Groytown, who died a few months ago, threw herself into the Waiohine River, and was only rescued by a young man named M 'Guinness after gome trouble. The poor woman's house was burned down lust week, and her mind is affected by her misfortunes. While she was being examined in the Greytown dispensary as to her sanity she seized a bottle of opium and drank a large quautity of the drug. She has been pronounced insane and will be sent to the asylum. At the inquest on Frita Lee, an infant belonging to a Chinese couple who were married here a year ago, the doctor said that death was due to paralysis of the heart from vomiting, occasioned by the hot weather. According to the doctor there is a great deal of infantile sickness from this cause just now. The body of Joseph Guilford, alias Thomas Kelly, about 35 years of age, who is supposed to have been a labourer, was found floating off the Queen's wharf, Auckland, on 'Thursday. Nothing it known as to the cause of his death. The New Zealand Times reports that the tn»n named Black, who wai injured on election day bj a runaway faaria. and had his feet

amputated, has died at the hospital at Palmerston North. His body is to b« taken to Napier for interment. Tho deceased had carried out some extensive contracts in the South Is.and and Napier. A settler at Waitati named Richard Georga Harris died suddenly at Waitati on Thursday morning. Ha had been receiving medical attention for some time. Mr Walter Stott, town clerk of Green Island, met with his death by drowning at Taieri Mouth on Saturday afternoon. He had gone out there with a picnic party composed of the employees of the Burnside Ironworks, of which he was manager, and whilst swimming in the bay came to his death. Constable King, of Milton, proceeded to the place where the deceased was last seen, and endeavoured, with the use of grappling irons, to recover the body, but owing to the strength of the ourrent where the fatality ooourred dragging operations are being carried on with much difficulty. The sad occurrence has cast a gloom over Green Island, where the deceased was held in high esteem. A boy aged 14, named James Piper, belonging to Canterbury, but afc present on a visit to Dunedin for his holidays, sustained concussion of the brain by a fall in Morgan's baths on Saturday. The lad, it is stated, went into a . plaoe where the bathers were told not to go, and fell backwards against concrete. He was taken to the hospital in an unconsoious state, but is now progressing very satisfactorily. Tbe Advocate reports that a serious accident , happened to a young man named Bernard Wisneski, one of the platelayers employed in laying the permanent way between Hyde and : Capbnrn, through one of the heavy rails falliDg j on And orciffhing one of his ankles severely. He was sent to his home at Waihola. A four-year-old ohild, belonging to a man named Smith, employed on tbe Mahinapua, died at Auokland, it is believed, from phos- j ph<MK>u« poison, caused by sucking matohss. A young man named Charles Groombridge was drowned by a canoe accident on the Wanganui River on Sunday. At the inquest on j Monday the jury returned a verdict that the deooased was accidentally drowned. Edward Pocle, nged 18, was drowned in a lagooc on Winton Plains on Sunday forenoon. The deceased, with two others, went to the lagoon, which was about Bft 'deep, to bathe. Poole stripped first, and swam across. In returning, however (the Southland Times reports), his companions saw he was in trouble, and one, J. H. Bushby, jumped in with hie clothes on and reiobed the lad, but heolutohed at him, with the result that both nank, and Bushby on getting f reo was compelled to swim to the bank. He, however, at once stripped and returned to the spot where Poole sank and brought his body out. The girl • named Mtry Murphy, who dieappeared mysteriously from the service of her employer at Mokoreta on Wed- ' nesday week, was discovered two dnjs | later crouching in some scrab, half a I mile away, on the banks of the Wyndham ! River. She explained her conduct by saying | that she wanted to get back to her companions | in the Caversham Industrial School. She was < none tbe worse for her escapade, notwithstanding that she stayed out for two nights, and was without food for 45 hours. >