CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2286, 23 December 1897, Page 21

CASUALTIES.

Wedding festivities at Petone, Wellington, o» the 14th had a mosb unhappy ending. Natives from ail pacts of the district had assembled to witness a marriage between the daughter of Martin, a well-known Maori resident and the representative of a noted tribe, and the love son of an equally wellknown Native. The marriege ceremony passed off smoothly, but at the wedding breakfast Martin, the bride's father, dropped dead, necessitating the cessation of further festivities.

On the 14th Detective Campbell went to a boarding-house in Wellington to arrest a young man, E. A. Hughes, aged 22, on a charge of stealing a bicycle from the Public Library on December 2. Hughes was only partly dressed, and on the plea of getting his clothes stepped into a wardrobe and shot himself through the ear with a revolver. . Hughes died during the day. He had been one of the servants' staff at Government House ju«t before Lord Glasgow left.

Amos Nicholson committed suicide on the 14th in the railway station at Greymoufch. He was discovered with hi* coat off and neatly folded under his head for a pillow. Alongside of him were four candles partly consumed, and he had a revolver in his left hand. There waa a>bull«t wound through his head.

Aaron Pearson, a farmer at Aolea North, was found dead in his bed on the 13 th. He. was apparently in perfect health on Sunday-night. Harrj Partington, - aged* 12, waa drowned while bathing at ' Auckland on- the 12th insfc.

On the 13th a< young woman -named Annie Schultz, of Oriental Bay»who,was staying afc Trentham, in the Hutfc Valley, was missed.' Search was made without avail, till 4 a.m. ou the 14th, when she was found drowned in a pond sft deep at the side of the Hutt;, River. It is supposed that while sitting on the edge she slipped in, and got her feel; entangled in the- roots of a willow tree which is growing, at the side.

Jacob Lamb, a fisherman, 80 years old, was found dead in Snow Gully, Wellington, on 14th. The body was much decomposed, and it is believed that the m»n died thcee weeks ago. He was last seen a month eince.

On the Isth Alexander Davidson, an old resident of Greenpark, Canterbury, was killed by breaking his neck by a fall from a dray ■while loading hay.

Robert O'Rourkp, 30 years of age, was found dead in the Christchurch Gardens on. the 17th. On the body were £16 and an unopened packet ef poison for destroying rats and mice. It is supposed to be a case of death from tie&rt disease. Deceased had lived at Fernside, and had just; come back from shearing at Horaley Downs. The inquest was adjourned to December 28, in order to allow of an analysis of the stomach. The sum o£ £16 was found in his pockets, together with a buttle of phosphor paste with the seal noi broken, a bottle partly used of a fluid like water, and an orange with a piece bitten out of it.

An elderly lady, Mrs Stevenson, met.nith au accident on Saturday forenoon at Burnside, beiog (truck by the engine of a train on the Walton Park branch. She was walking along' the main road against the wind and had her umbrella np, so that she did not see the train &pproachiug, while, being somewhat d«af , nb.e did not hear it or its whistle, which w*s blown by the driver to warn her of its approach, and she walked right up against it. The train was going dead slow at the time and pulled up within a few feet after the accident, by- which Mrs Stevenson was thrown clear of the rails. She suffered several nasty" cuts and bruiies about the body— somewhat severe

injuries for a lady of 72 years of age — bub under the care of Dr Will she is making a favourable recover/.

News has been received that a man named Robert Johnston was drowned off fche Barnßcleugh dredge, near Alexandra, on the 17th mat. The body had not been recovered.

The Sydney Telegraph, reporting fche suicide of W. Freeman Kitchen, states, that as repeated knocking at the door of his room failed to elicit any reply, the police were sent for and the door was burst open, when Kitchen was found lying across ,his bed with blood flowing from a gash across his throat and another on his left arm. He was still alive, aud intimated to the constable that the injuries were selfinflicted. A razor covered with blood was lying beside him. He was taken to the hospital, where he died. Dccaated's mind is said to hwe been unhinged in consequence of great mental trouble which us had suffered lately in consequence of so accident svhich happened to his wife, Miss Elsie Landers, the well-known actress, at Brisbane last week. Mies Landers took a company up to the northern capital, and shortly afterwards met with a serioui acoidenfc. Ducing portion of her turn *he fell the full height of fche prcseenium, striking her head against en iron stay. Sbe insisted on going on for her part against fcho doctor's orders, broke do^n, and is now in a delirious condition from concussion of the brain. Mr Kitchen seemed terribly anxious about his wife's condition, and he issupposed to have worried over it fco such an' extent that hii reason gave way.

The two-year-old sod of ' the ex-mayor of Rangiora, Mr E! R Good, fell into- a copper of boiling wator on Saturday afternoon, and djed from tbo injuries" at midnight. • A. seaman named Donald M 'Donald, belonging to the ship InvercargiH, fell from the wh&tf into tbe water on Monday night shortly after 11.30. He was got out and put on board his vessel but libthTthe worse for his immersion.