CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3566, 18 July 1922, Page 29

CASUALTIES.

The dead body of Frank Kelleray, married, aged 45, was found in Auckland Harbour. He leaves a wife and two children. J. Clark, a married man, engaged as a wharf labourer at New Plymouth, aged 66, was knocked over by a motor car when crossing the street to board a tramcar. He sustained a fractured skull and a broken leg, and died in the hospital two hours la ter. Elizabeth Margaret Aisher, a married woman, aged 58, died suddenly at Wellington on the 10th. At the inquest evidence was given that deceased had just received a present from her son, who had been absent for four years. She became excited, and the medical evidence was that death was due to heart failure, caused by excitement. At the inquest held on the remains of a mail’s body found at Manganapa Valley, evidence was given by his mother that the deceased was her eldest son, William James Joseph Brennan, 27 years of age, who had been missing from his home since April 14. He had often been away before for four of five months without saying where he was going. The medical evidence given showed that the skull was shattered. The injuries coincided with those from a rifle found near the remains. The coroner (Air W. A. Barton, S.AI.) returned a verdict of death due to a rifle wound apparently self-inflicted during a period of mental depression. Frederick Kite, a resident’ of Otahuha, aged 77, died in Auckland Hospital from injuries through being knocked down by a motor cycle in Queen street on June 17. Word was received at Oarnaru of a fatal accident at Birchwood Station, 110 miles in- ; land, whereby Hugh James Murray, a labourer, met his death. Deceased was carrying a log over ice to a wagon, when he fell and was rendered unconscious. Medical aid was summoned from Kurow, 70 miles distant, and a doctor arrived as soon as possible, but, deceased died while the doctor was in attendance. Death was due to a fractured skull and shock. Deceased was a single man, his mother residing near Auckland. A serious accident befel Mr John H Ayers, farmer, Mimihau. on Wednesday (says the Wyndham Farmer). It appears that, along with Mr Frederick Heath (his brother-in-law), Ire had gone into the bush near by to saw some logs. While the men were proceeding along the track, Ayers put up his hand to brush aside an overhanging branch. This action must have disturbed another and much heavier branch higher up the tree, which fell 10 feet or 12 feet with sack force on to Ayers’s head as to inflict a deap wound and render him senseless. Ayers was motored with all haste to the Southland Hospital and underwent an operation A young man named Bertram William Spelman, aged 24, while riding a motorcycle on Saturday near Foxton, collided with a spring dray after dark. Both the dray and the motor-cycle were without lights. A shaft impaled the cyclist, and life was extinct when medical aid arrived. Cecil Gordon Titchener, who, while riding a bicycle on Friday night, collided with an express van, was more seriously hurt than was at first anticipated, and it was found necessary on Saturday morning to amputate his right leg below tlie knee.