CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3898, 27 November 1928, Page 37

CASUALTIES.

MOTORING ACCIDENT. _ CHRISTCHURCH, November 20. jMr A. Dudley Dobson, formerly city engineer of Christchurch, and Mrs Dobson, met with an accident yesterday while motoring between Kirwee and Darfield. A back tyre blew out, causing tli e car to turn over, the occupants being pinned down till assistance was rendered .by neighbouring farmers. Mrs Dobson was badly bruised, and is suffering from shock. Mr Dobson was cut about the face and much shaken. He recently celebrated his eighty-seventh birthday. STATION HAND’S SUICIDE. CHRISTCHUivJH November 20. Frederick R. Garlick employed on Woodbank Station, Hanmer Springs, committed suicide by poisoning on Monday. At the inquest a verdict of death from poison, seli-administered was returned. FOUND HANGING. AUCKLAND, November 22. A builder named James Wills, aged ->3, married, was found dead hanging from a strap in a room in the house in which he stayed. At the inquest a verdict of death by hanging was returned. Evidence was given by the deceased’s brother-in-law to the effect that the deceased, who stayed at his house, had been in a slightly deranged state, and’had been strange in his actions for some time past. TRAIN STRIKED LORRY. CHRISTCHURCH, November 22. A railway train going to Lyttelton this morning struck a Public Works lorry containing seven employees at the WoolSton crossing. Samuel Thompson, a linesman. died on his way to hospital, and A. Bischkie, P. Clough, and-K. S. Richarison were slightly injured. The others were unhurt. Thompson was a single man, residing at 57 Dover street. At the time of the accident the lorry was proceeding towards the hills. When on the rails, the driver (T. Crawford) saw the train approaching. He swerved the machine towards Woolston station in the. hope of pulling up alongside the train. The turn was too late, how'ever, and the engine struck the rear of the truck, where five men were sitting. Thompson was on the side that received the force of the impact, and was seriously injured. The lorry, which had a load of ladders and linesmen’s gear, was pushed violently forward by the collision, and ran over the cattle stops. MARRIED WOMAN’S DEATH. AUCKLAND, November 23. Dressed in a nightdress, singlet, and stockings, the body of Mrs Elizabeth May Bradney was found on the floor of the passage by her U-year-o!d daughter on the evening of November 11. Giving evidence at the conclusion of the inquest this morning, the girl said she found her mother when she came in from playing, and she at once ran to a neighbour. Sergeant Flannigan said that no letter had been found which would indicate that a message was left for anybody. Detective Kelly said there were no marks which showed violence. The husband had gone to his work at 2 o’clock that afternoon. That Mrs Bradney died from acute septicaemia, following a condition probably brought about by her own act, was the verdict of the coroner, Mr F. H. Hunt. MAORI DROWNED IN RIVER. AUCKLAND, November 23. At Helensville last evening soon after 7 o’clock a Maori was drowned in the river after leaping from the wharf. He had been sitting on the wharf for some time, and a constable approached him with a view to establishing his identity. As soon as the constable got near him, the Maori leaped off the wharf and started to swim across the river. The constable quickly obtained a boat and set off in pursuit of the swimmer, but before he could get near the Maori sank out of sight. It is surmised , that the Maori caught his clothes on a snag in the river and was pulled down into the current. Some days ago it was reported that an elderly' Maori had wandered away from the Avondale Mental Hospital. DEATH FROM POISONING. AUCKLAND, November 23. At the inquest on William L. Moylan. aged 54, a butcher, who died in the Auckland Hospital last night from the effects of poisoning, Leo Moylan, a son of the deceased, said he saw his father at the hospital on the day after he was admitted. His father told him that he had taken poison, which he thought at the time was a patent medicine he was in the habit of. taking for his nerves. He told witness he had been off work for a couple of day’s with a bad leg. During that time he had had no sleep, and had suffered agony with his wound, which, no doubt, made him depressed. The poison which he had taken was used for dressing his wound. The inquest was adjourned. GAS POISONING. WELLINGTON, November 23. The free ambulance made a rush to the public hospital to-day to save a life. The patient was J. a widower, aged 62, of 389 Adelaide road, who was suffering seveerly from the effects of gas poisoning. When Mr J. Coutts, accompanied by Mr G. Maxfield, returned to his home at the address mentioned, he noticed a smell of gas, and on entering the rear of the premises Sherwood, who occupied part of the house, was found lying on

the floor near a gas ring. All the windows and doors were closed. A doctor was hastily summoned, and after he had given Sherwood an injection the unconscious man was rushed to hospital. The condition of Sherwood was stated to-night to be very' serious. DEATH FROM GUNSHOT WOUND. CHRISTCHURCH, November 25. A man named T. W. Goodhart, aged 46, Hurried was found shot yesterday at his residence at Opawa. The verdict at the inquest was that death was due to a gunshot wound self-inflicted while mentally depressed. The deceased was formerly manager of the Barnet Glass Rubber Company. GIRL DROWNED IN BATHING POOL ALEXANDRA, November 24. A drowning fatality occurred this afternoon when Miss Zella Watts, an employee - at Mr Black’s tea rooms, aged about 19 years, whose parents reside at Alexandra, was drowned whilst bathing in a pool where the Molyneux Rive, flows in a stream apart from the main current of the river, a little distance below the Alexandra bridge. Some time elapsed before help was forthcoming, and Mr Ernest Lawny, on arrival, immediately dived in and brought the body to the surface. Dr Gladstone and others made every effort to restore animation for over an hour, but without sucess. It is considered that the intense cold of the stream caused the bather to take cramp. A younger sister who accompanied the deceased gave the alarm. BOY FALLS FROM TREE. A 10-year-old boy named Arthur Holmes, who resides at 67 Nairn street, Roslyn, was admitted to the Hospital at 4.40 p.m. on Sunday suffering from concussion and a fractured right arm, received through falling from a tree in the Town Belt. THE HARBOUR TRAGEDY. The body of one of the victims of the recent harbour tragedy was found at Quail Island by the Port Chalmers police on Sunday' afternoon. The body' was removed to Port Chaimers, where it was identified as being that of Archibald Bell. 25 years of age. An inquest was held yesterday morning at Port Chalmers.