CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2255, 20 May 1897, Page 23

CASUALTIES.

Intelligence has been received in Aucklaud t;h*t Win. Crowder, a coal miner, was killed at the Huatiy coal mine on the 11th. He had been

working in the mine for years. He leave 3 seven children.

Word has been received ab Auckland of an attempt afc suicide by a young woman named Amy Vickars at Rotorangi station. The girl took an ounce ot laudanum, and then wrote the following letter :—": — " I hava taken poison because lam miserable and want to die. There is no blame attached to anyone. Good-bye, all kind friends and relations, and may God receive my soul." The letter was read by a fe'llowservanf;, and word sfnbto Dr Pdrcival and Constable Brennan. They drove out to the station. The usual remedies were applied, but the patient beinj Mill io a low condition was removed to the Hamilton Hospital.

A man named Samuel Farr has been admitted to the GisboniK hospital suffering from a severe gunshot wound in ths lelt ahculdor, which he admitted was helf-inflicted. He said he had ficed two shots, only the first of which struck him.

A lad named Percy John Hughes, aged 19 jears, attempted to commit suicide at Marton on the 2nd insb. Ifc is alleged thai; he took an overdose of " Rou^h on Rats." He also cub his writfc and pub some of the poison on the cut, hopiDg this would h&ve the effect of poisoning him The following unfinished aud incoherent Utter was fouud amongst; his effects :—": — " I do make this confession — bsing fiick of life aud longing for death 4vhich I could not c*sfc away from me, I found myself a burden to nearly everyone, and as "

Another guv accident is reported by 'the Riverton paper. Mr John Grey, of Grey Bros., Te Tua, when out shooting la3b week placed his loaded gun against a tree, when by some means ifc went off, tbe charge entering his arm at tho wrist, penetra'.ing ths fleshy psrfc aud coming oufc afc the elbow without injuring the bone.

Afc tbe inquest at Hawf ra on Essie Mason, of Kaponga, ifc was proved that she had bought Rough on Rat 3, and that this was the poison shs had taken. A verdicb of suicide was returned, and a rider was added remarking on uo attempts being made to give an emetic and on the reticence of a brother.

An accident which illustrates the danger of handling detonators occurred on the 12th, when a boy named William Sell, who is 11 years of age and lives ab Waibati, fell while running across a road with a detonator he had secured; with the result that ib exploded, and he suffered such injury to the points of his fingers that he was brought into town to the hospital for treatment. After being attended to afc the institution the boy was sent home again.

A aad fatality occurred at Ngapara on Sunday, by which Mr William Dick, a very old and respected resident of the district, met his death in a peculiarly painful manner. Ib appears that , Mr Dick, as was hia usual custom, went out for the cows early in the morning. A. bull was

running in the paddock with the cows, aud ifc is 1 supposed Mr Dick was trying to keep the bull from entering the milking yard aloag with the cows, for when found he was quite dead, with the bull fitanding over him. The unimal had to be shob to enable these who assembled to get thet body of the unfortunate ro»D. Deceased leaves a wife and three of a family — two sons and one daughter, — all grown up. Strange to say, the bull had been Bold by the deceased a day or two previous to the fatality, and was to have been taken away by the purchaser on Monday morniug. The fatality was not observed by anyone. Deceased was badly gored, and the ground was all trampled round where the body lay. Alexander Linclop, 19 years of age, son of a. Carterton chemist, was out exercising on his bicycle, and whilst "scorching" ran head first into the wheel of a trap. He >-«niashed his skull in, and was picked up unconscious. A young child named Joseph Wass was drowned on Friday in a tub at Woolston. Edward Saunders, 22 years of age, waß admitted into the hospital on Monday night, suffering with an injured finger. He was working at a chaffcutter on Mr Shannon's farm i at Berwick, when one of his fingers got caughb ' in a cogwheel and was taken right off.