CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 57

CASUALTIES.

A man named Daniel Edward Daly, employed bv the Auckland City Council, met with a serious accident on the 18th mst. tie was driving a lorry loaded with metal from a quarry, and had a team of three horses to Handle. One was a young animal, and it took fright at a load of timber, with the result that the team bolted. Daly, who is an excellent driver, managed to some extent to control his horses, but they dashed on to the footpath. Even then he was guiding them well; but an elderly woman was in tho track, and ho* had to choose between running her down and a collision with a telegraph pole. He saved the woman s me, but got sadlv knocked about hi ms sit. Apparently. he must have struck the telegraph pole, although the wheels of the wagon cleared both that obstacle and also a store. As the wagon bumped off the footpath again on to the street it came to giiet, the pole being smashed and the forecamagc splintered. Daly’s left arm is crushed from the shoulder down, and will in all probability have to be amputated. His face has also been injured. . ~ “ You will find me in the head river, was the text of a note written in pencil on a piece of paper which led to the finding of the body of Octavius Boon, a farmer, of Upper Ricoarton, who committed suicide on Sunday, 13th inst. His body was found in the Avon head river (says the Christchurch Press), with a brick fastened round tho neck with a piece of plain fencing wire. At the inquest, held at tho morgue in tho afternoon, before Mr H. W.- Bishop, District Coroner. Annie Boon, wife of tho deceased, gave evidence that he was 48 years of age, and had not appeared to be depressed. About six weeks ago he had a severe cold, the aftereffects of influenza. Deceased was quite cheerful on Saturday night, retiring about 9 o’clock. He woke up about 4 a.m., had a smoke, and slept again till 5, when he got up and said he was going out to the lavatory. He drefesed, and witness never saw him again. She went to look for him about 10 minutes later, and then sent her daughter to bring her son-in-law. Her daughter subsequently found the piece of newspaper on the kitchen table with the note, “You will find me in the head river.” Witness did not know to what it referred. Deceased had no troubles, and there was nothing to indicate that he contemplated suicide. Richard Skirtoa, son-in-law of deceased, stated that he went with a constable to the 'place to which he knew the note referred. Witness found deceased’s body in a hole about 7ft deep. “It was fully dressed, and a hat was on the bank. A brick was tied round the neck with a piece of plain fencing wire. Deceased was then quite dead. The coroner remarked that it was rather strange that there should be no apparent reason for such a determined suicide. Further evidence showed that deceased’s eldest brother and one of his sisters had been in a mental hospital for three months. A nephew was at present in such an institution. The coroner returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide by drowning himself whilst in a state of temporary insanity. George James Wood, who was_ injured on Friday as the result of a collision between a tram and a taxi, died at the hospital on the 15th. • The steamer Strathenderick, hound from Newcastle to South America, put into Wellington on the 16th in consequence of a Chinese fireman breaking his leg ; The injured man was taken to the hospital. A soldier at the Trentham camp, Private J Laycock, was admitted to the hospital to-night suffering from a broken left forearm

Ellis Loft.man, a widower, aged 53 years, and an employee of the Union Steam Shin Company, was killed instantly on the 16th inst. at Wellington. He was apparently bound for his home, near Aro street, and was talking to a man about 6 o’clock. Then Loftman seems to have moved off to catch an up-bound car, not noticing another one approaching rapidly from the other direction, which was on the down, grade. Ibis car struck him and threw him against the kerb. His injuries were so severe as to cause death at once.

Mr Frank Holloway (son of Mr and Mrs J. Holloway, of Clyde) met with a somewhat serious accident at Invercargill the other day (says the Dunstan Times). While he was out rabbit shooting the gun he was carrying exploded, with the result that one hand was so badly injured as to necessitate the amputation of a finger. Superintendent Dwyer received a telegram from Bealey Flat on the 17th inst., stating that Patrick Twomey (labourer) was killed, Charles Storey badly injured, and Samuel Armerich slightly injured by an explosion in the Otira tunnel. At the time of the accident the three men were engaged in charging a hole prior to blasting away rock. . A young Maori workman named Jonn Aorangi, employed by the Whakamarama Land and Timber Company, met with a painful death on the 16th inst. (says the Tauranga correspondent of the New Zealand Herald). Together with two white employees, W. J. Brisker and E. Ormsby, Aorangi was engaged iri taking empty trucks from the company’s wharf at Omakaroa when both the gear of the engine and the brake on the trucks refused to act. Engine and trucks, ran back at considerable speed, and in rounding a sharp curve the capsized The Maori s two companions jumped oft, but Aorangi was caught under the engine, and before he could be extricated had been severely scalded. He died about three hours afterwards Brister, in leaping from the engine, had his hip dislocated, and was conveyed to the Tauranga Hospital. A young* man namoo Frank Dugan was taken into the Hospital_ on Saturday afternoon suffering from a dislocation of the left shoulder. The Injury was caused through his falling down in a fit in the street. The local police have received information that John Henry Mee. a Becks farmer, about

38 years of ago, was killed in a motor car accident near Becks on Friday night. At the time the deceased was driving with four others to St. Bathans, and it is supposed that something went wrong with the steering gear, causing the car to capsize.