CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2375, 7 September 1899, Page 24

CASUALTIES.

A body was picked up floating in Thames Gulf, three miles ' from the place of the drowning of the four men in a dingey at Coromandel Harbour. -The body is supposed to be that of Mellis. Richard Maxwell Thomas, a gumdigger, died suddenly at Dargaville. He came from Blueskin, Otago, and is a native of London. - He has no relatives, so far as is known, in the colony. He had been living among the Maoris, who brought him in to Dargaville for medical treatment. William Clarke, a coal miner, was ran over by a train at Seddonville, West Coast, on the 20th ult., and died in 10 .minutes. He was lying on the track. Fatal consequences resulted from an accident to William Rapley, a storeman at Waipukurau railway station, which occurred in a most simple manner. He was loading a truck with totara piles, 20ffc by 12in, assisted by another man. This timber was in a heap, and they were sorting the best of it to put in the truck. In moving one piece of timber out of the way it rolled down, Deceased jumped down, and tried v stop it by catering it in his arms. The weight forced him to the ground, with his two arms underneath, and both were broken below the elbow. He was at once taken to the hospital, but gangrene set in, with a fatal result. There was no necessity for slopping the log, and it would not have done any harm if it had rolled to the ground. Our Waikouaiti correspondent writes : " A runaway occurred here on Wednesday evening, August 30, the horse of Mr J. Summers bolting from Waikouaiti to Palmerston. Mr Summers had just returned from a drive late in the evening, and left his horse and trap — a light gig — in the. yard. The horse managed to rub off its bridle, and made a dash for the road, doing the eight miles to Palmerston in less than half-an-hour. The trap came to grief a few chains from the Palmerston Post Office. Fortunately, as it happened, as the horse daslied into the crowd of people going home from the hall after the performance of the Federal Band. The horse was captured on the road to Shag Point by some of the Shag Point boys, and returned to the Empire stables, Palmerston, where he was found, after a hot and lengthy chase, by his owner. No damage was done to life or limb, but the horse was cut about the fetlocks, and the trap and harness suffered severely." j A Chinaman named Kin Kimg, living with his brother, a market gardener, at Spreydon, Canterbury, shot himself through the chest early on Thursday morning. R. W. Fereday, one of the oldest Christchurch lawyers, and a member of various public bodies, ydied on the the 30th. Mrs O'Neill, living at South Dunedin, was- received into the, hospital on the_ 30th ult.,, suffering from a fracture .of the thigh. So far as can be gathered; it appears that she was knocked down in "Rattray street . by a cyclist, but under what circumstances it is impossible to say, as the victim of the accident was unable to furnish any information. A very painful accident happened on Saturday (says the Waipahi correspondent of the Mataura Ensign) to Anna Melrose, the little daughter of Mr Robert Melrose, of Waipahi. The little girl was burning tussocks, when her clothes became ignited. Dr De Lautour, of Tapanui, was soon in attendance, and found that the child was severely burnt on the face, breast, and arms. At the inquest on the body found in the | Thames Gulf, a verdict of " Found j drowned " was returned. The body was identified as that of Mellisby Saxon, a brother of one of the men drowned in ihe dingey disaster at Coromandel. Himi Kamihara, -aged 17, a mail carrier, was drowned in crossing the Waihou River, at Hokianga, during <j. fresh. The body of the lad was found afterwards in the bed of the river ; also that of his horse, which was saddled and bridled. John Gumming, about 56 years of age, committed suicide in Auckland on Saturday morning, cuting his throat with a razor. The reason for the act, is not known. At the inquest a verdict was returned' of temporary insanity.