CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2905, 17 November 1909, Page 35

CASUALTIES.

I «. Patrick Dooley died on his way to the. Stratford Hospital from injuries resulting from a fall of sandstone at Pohokura. Deceased wae employed by the Public Works Department. Reginald Knight, 15 years of age," a telegraph messenger at Eketahuna, fell off the train from Palmerston on the 9th, and was killed. At the inquest it was shown that he was standing on the bridge between two carriages, and when the accident occurred he was in the act of lighting a cigarette. He was apparently' jolted off the bridge, and fell across, the rails. His head and feet were cut off. The accident occurred just after the train left the Gorge station. •• At an inquest on the Body of Henry John Morgan, who died at Christ church on the 9th from the effects of butter of antimony (self-administered), it was stated that he used the poison in his trade of French polisher. During the past five or six weeks deceased was drinking heavily, a prohibition order against him having recently -lapsed. He becamedepressed after drinking, and spoke of taking his life. When his wife declined to give him money to purchase chlorodyne, he went to his workshop and got the poieon. At that time he was jjist ont of a drunken sleep, and he was as if in delirium tremens. The verdict was that he committed suicide whilst in a state of unsound mind. Roderick Morrison, a married man with three children, who had borrowed a horse at Invercargill to ride to work, wa» found later dead, with his head resting against the hocks of the horse, "which had fallen into a deep ditch. The Tuapeka .Times states that a man named Samuel Neil«on, a workman on the Golden Bed dredge, had the mi&fortune to get his hand crushed in the machinery on Monday, Bth Inst. The injured man was brought into the Tuapeka Hospital on Tuesday morning, when Dr Sutherland amputated the injured hand above the wrist. A Native reported to the police at Wairoa that he had found a body hanging on a tree near Opoutama, in the Mahia district. He did not go near enough to sue if it was a European or a Maori, but alleged that it had been hanging there for two months. No one is known to be missing. A constable is off to make inquiries. Charles Adams, /60). a Frenchman, died suddenly at Muriwai on the 13th. Heart disease is supposed to have been the cause of death. Between 7 and 8 o'clock on Saturday night a young man named John Finncrty. a labourer, aged 19 years, residing in the Leith Valley, fell or jumped from a tramcar in George street, and sustained very severe injuries. Finnerty wae proceeding to town, having boarded the car at Duke stroet. He was in the rear compartment, and at Albany street his hat blew off, and in attempting to recover it he either fell off or jumped off. Thecar was stopped, and on investigation the young man was found lying in the roadway in an unconscious condition. He was immediately removed to Dr Closs's residence opposite, and was afterwards conveyed to the Hospital in the ambulanco. He remained unconscious throughout the night. News from Te Araroa states that on Saturday morning three Natives went out in a boat fishing. They attempted to return about 3 in the afternoon, and when half- way heme the boat capsized. The three occupants hung on for some time, when the first one, named Tirapira Hami, dropped off and was drowned. The boat still drifted before the wind in the direction of Horoera, and soon a second man, ranted Wirepu Tapinana, dropped off and was seen no more. The boat still con-

tinued drifting with the third man, Puhaka Kohere, but he managed to get a piece of planking, ahd proceeded to swim. After some time he safely reached the shore at Arupua in an exhausted condition. An oil launch, left on Monday morning to make all possible search for the bodies, but the quest was unsuccessful. A drowning fatality occurred in the Opawa River, at Blenheim. Mrs Brown, wife of Mr James Brown, bootmaker, went out, accompanied by her adopted daughter, a child of about four, for the purpose of catching whitebait. She suddenly disappeared to the bottom of the river. The child xan to the house, of a neighbour, who, with assistance, recovered the body. A doctor was summoned, but found life extinct. Mrs Brown had complained this morning of not feeling well. A tramway conductor on the New Brighton line, named Frederick Ashton, was ad« mitted to the hospital on Saturday suffering from serious injuries caused through! his head coming into contact with a tram--way pole. . It appears that Ashton, who resides at Sydeoham, was conducting the 1.38 p,m. car to New Brighton. Near the tram bridge the line makes a sharp curve, and on this curve .a passenger who had forgotten to get off at the stopping place attempted to alight. Ashton, in trying to stop this fooli&h act, overbalanced himself, and fell on the back of his head, striking one of the wooden tramway poles and: fracturing his skull. He was picked up unconscious and taken to the hospital.It was reported last evening that he was progressing favourably. A little girl named Iris Marion Jackson, eight years of age, was knocked down by Dr Sandstein's motor car on the 15th, and was somewhat severely injured.' When scrubbing a floor on the 15th inst., Christina Fraser, who has a small business neax the wharfs, suddenly collapsed, and wae taken to the Hospital unconscious. Her condition is considered critical. Her brother states that the patient* seemed to have been seized with a fit.

Thomas Maxwell, a saddler, in business in Princes street South, was on the' 15th\ the victim of a trap accident, and was admitted to the Hospital at 8.30 rather badly cut about the face. His injuries are not serious