ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

Southland Times, Issue 21002, 7 February 1930, Page 8

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

DEATH IN A HOTEL. (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, February .6. At the inquest on the man who died suddenly in a hotel yesterday an army paybook was produced with the name of Lieut. John F. Walker, No. 10-2389, aged 41. It is stated he came from England to New Zealand in 1909. The inquest was adjourned for a post-mortem. BATHER STRIKES HEAD ON BOULDERS. Dargaville, February 6. The annual schools picnic, held at Picnic Island yesterday, was marred by an unfor•tunate accident, which ended fatally this morning. At the island is a stream in which there is a swimming pool. On arrival at the picnic grounds shortly after eleven a young man, Norman Fitzhenry, aged 20, a baker’s assistant, with a number of others was swimming in the pool, which had changed its formation since the previous year, and unknown to the swimmer contained a large number of boulders. Fitzhenry dived from the bank, several feet high, into the pool and struck his head. He came to the surface, and his companions thought at first his actions were only in fun, but they soon realized that he had been severely injured. He was immediately taken from the water and received attention at a nearby farm house. Medical aid was summoned from Dargaville and he was then taken to Te Kopuru Hospital, where he rallied, but had a relapse during the night and passed away in the early hours of the morning. MAORI BOYS DROWNED . Hawera, February 6. A verdict of accidental drowning was returned by the Coroner following the circumstances connected with the drowning of two Maori boys, aged 10, at Taiporohenui on Thursday last, w’hen a trough in which they were playing on a creek capsized, precipitating them into the water. AGED MAN FOUND HANGING. Ashburton, February 6. Christopher Traves (64), a single man, was found hanging in a shed on the property of Charles Todd at Tinwald this morning. DROWNED IN BULLER RIVER. Westport, February 6. A young man named J. de Groot, a recent arrival in the Dominion, who was employed in the Public Works Department as a boatman at the Tiroroa railway construction camp, was drowned in the Buller River this morning. It Is stated that de Groot took a party of men across the river in the boat and returned. Later a bushman on the other side of the river saw de Groot struggling in the water and his boat tied to the bank. It is surmised that he overbalanced and fell in, being carried down by the current. LEVEL CROSSING FATALITY. Christchurch, February 6. That Mary Isabel Clarke, aged _l2, met her death as a result of being run over by the Parnassus-Christchurch train on January 25, 1930, no blame being attached to the railway employees, was the finding of the Coroner, Mr E. D. Mosley, at the inquest this afternoon. The only witnesses called were Thomas Dick, engine-driver of the train, and Claude Alfred James Harris, his fireman. Dick stated that he whistled three short blasts when approaching the crossing and did not see the girl as he was looking out on the right-hand side. The fireman saw her and called on him to stop the train. He instantly applied the brakes, but the girl was struck and the engine passed over her before it could be stopped. The fireman, in evidence, stated that the girl ran from the left-hand side on to the trapk. Clearly she had not heard or seen the train, probably because her view would be obstructed by a corrugated iron fence. Both witnesses agreed that the crossing was a reasonably open one and not considered dangerous. / FATALITY AT ST. KILDA BEACH. Dunedin, February 6. A fatality occurred at St. Kilda beach this afternoon when a nine-year-old boy named William Kerr was drowned in the surf. There are safety zones marked on the beach by flags, but many of the bathers had ignored them and were bathing in a rather dangerous rip. Kerr evidently got into difficulties and was carried out to sea. A life line was quickly manned, but the first two men to go out could not find the boy. The body was then seen floating about 300 yards out and two young men went out, one bringing in the body. Lafe was found to be extinct and the body was taken to the morgue.