CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2829, 3 June 1908, Page 29

CASUALTIES.

People little think when they open the •window of a railway carriage and carelessly; throw a bottle out that they are running a great risk of striking, and perhaps lulling someone. It is a practice all too frequently indrjged in, and unhappily it was recently attended with most unfortunate results. During the last few weeks several persons have been injured through bottles being thrown out of the carriage windows of passing trains, and it is reported that serious injuries have been indicted upon a ganger named Leathern', working near Omakau. A bottle struck Mr Leathern on the forehead with such force that the missle was shattered. A severe wound was made on Mr Leatham's forehead, and he was rendered insensible. The injured man, who is now doing well, was taken to Dr LawT" and had the wound stitched. A married woman, named Elizabeth Clark, aged 61 years, wife of Arthur Clark. a cook, was found dead in the back yard of nor" <pesid<en,t>e in Chaucer road, Napier, on May 26. In th© jmorning she seemed, to be in her usual health. She ,wias"a suf-' ferer <from asthma., - x Robert Lumaden, 50 years " of age, was killed in the State coal mine by a fall of coal on, May 26. He leaves a wife and four ohJidTen. The death of a young woman was reported to *fln9 Chpigtohurch .police, and' an inquest was held on May 26. The medical evidence was to the effect that death was probably due to septicaemia, deceased : having apparently '• suffered a partial mis>carriage, induced by the use of an instoru- j rnent. - A man, who lived with the woman, j stated .that he was the father of the child, ] and had endeavoured to persuade her not j to avoid maternity. She was averse to i seeing * a doctor,- but became ill, and he j summoned a doctor. She was then in j extremis, and died shortly afterwards. The inquest -was adjourned ito enable an analysis to be made. At t3ie adjourned inquest a verdict was returned that death was due *o blood poisoning, the result of selfinduced miscarriage. Beatrice Shiels, a child aged five yenrs. Was admitted to tihe Ohrietchurch Hospital suffering from severe burns, the result of her (clothes c&te-hing fire. She died on May £5. A verdict of accidental death was returned at the inquest. Aii old-age pensioner named George Deans, 70 yeans of Age, died suddenly at his residence in King street on May 27. He had been 'ailing for some time, but had ■not consulted ajioctor for the last three or four years. He went to bed about 10 o'clock on Tuesday night, and before going told his wife that he felt very queer. He slept in the room by himself, and about 2 o'clock his daughter, hearing a .noise in his room, went into it and found the old man on the floor apparently dead. She called her mother, and a doctor was sent for. "Or "Watt arrived shortly afterwards and found that Deans was quite dead, the supposed cause of death being heart trouble. The youngest child of Mr C. K. Smith, aged about three years, wandered to a oreek near the house at Dannevirke and was drowned. -The dead body of a. fisherman .lamed -Jctm Cotter, well known in the Bluff, has just irriyed. per the island cutter, from Buapuke. - Nothing has transpired as to the cause of his death beyond that he has been, drowned. Mr Robert Rowland Durrant, a wellknown Napier resident and one of the oldest engine-drivers on the Government railway, is dead. He drove the mail train as usual on TKhureday, May 28, but died in %'w bed about 3 o'clock t£® next moaning,

probaibly from ifosarfc disease. He wtas m his fifty-eighth year. Robert H. Hanson, 50 years of age, employed as a railway crossing keeper at the Auctkland Railway* Station, was knocked down by an engine which was about to be coupled to a train that he was attending to. Hanson sustained serious injuries, including the fracture of both legs. What is surmised to have been an accident, attended with fatal results, occurred some time about midnight on Saturday, a young man named Colin Morris being found dead alongside the railway line, about 300 yards south of the overbridge. The body was found on Swiday about midday by a lad named Berland, who informed George Griffiths, locomotive foreman, of what he had seen. Griffiths, in turn, com- , municated with the police, and the body was removed to the Morgue. The body was in a terribly mutilated conddtion, and it is quite evident death must have been instantaneous. Morris was only l'( or 18 years of age, was a fisherman, and his people reside at Deborah Bay. At the inquest an open verdict was returned. The evidence went in the direction of showing that lie got on a train for Mosgiel an mistake, and on discovering his error jumped off and was killed instantaneoup-ly. The infant eon of Mr Ernest Drummond, of Riwaka, Nelson, was found drowned on May 29 in a creek. On Friday, May 8, there was admitted to the Hospital a man named Stirling. He was then in a comatose condition, and was never able to supply any information as to his identity. In this condition he remained ' until last Friday evening, when he died. It has since been ascertained that the man's mam© was Alfred Stirling. He had been working for Mr Xirkland, a Taieri farmer. He was seized with a fit and sent to Mosgiel, where he had another seizure. He was then removed' to the Dunedin Hospital. ' Alice Turner, aged 1 three an- a-haltf. daughter of James Turner, employed by the Riversid-s Dairy Company, Gear Island, died on May 31 from injuries sustained by h«r clothes catching fire. An inquest was held at Christohurch touching the death c(f J. Gent, A'ho had his arm injured in machinery at Aulsobrcok and Cq.'s biscuit factory on March 25, and ■who died' from the results. A verdict was returned in accordance wdtib the medical , evidence, deaitih being due to septdc absorption from tihe injury to the arm, tho reI suit of tihe accident. A middle-aged man named Rees Williams, whose identity has not yet been established, threw himself in front of a swiftly-moving goods train at Ellerslie on the Ist hist., and sustained 'fearful injuries, from which he died in a. few minutes. The body of William Grindlay, who has been missing from his home in Invercargill since. Saturday, the 23rd ult., was found in tHe Puni Creek, under the bridge, at Nith street, shortly after 6 o'clock on Sunday evening. When the deceased was last seen alive in Tay street on the 23rd he appeared to be somewhat muddled with drink. Deceased was a blacksmith by trade and about 70 years of age. He had seemingly fallen into the creek as he was making his way home. A Press Association telegram 6tates that at the inquest the evidence showed that deceased, who was shortsighted, had stumbled into the creek on hia way home. A verdict was returned accordingly.

A commission agent in the Paris fruit marketa recently shipped a basket containing 63 selected peaches to London. The price for the lot was £108, or about £1 14 a 3d each.