MAN’S FALL FROM SIXTH FLOOR

Southland Times, Issue 23727, 27 January 1939, Page 8

MAN’S FALL FROM SIXTH FLOOR

SALESMAN CRASHES TO CITY STREET NOTES LEFT IN HOTEL LOUNGE (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 27*. In full view of a number of horrified spectators a man fell from the sixth floor of the City Hotel in the city late this afternoon to the pavement below and was killed instantly. He was Edgar Ronald MacKenzie, salesman, aged 27, of Aitken terrace, Mount Albert, a married man with one child. MXcKenzie had been sitting at a writing table in the lounge of the hotel. Two other visitors in the lounge at the time saw him cross to the telephone box several times. One of the visitors left the lounge and shortly afterwards one. of the lounge stewards saw MacKenzie on a settee with one leg through a window. He made a dash across the lounge, but before he reached the window MacKenzie had disappeared. There was a balcony almost three feet wide immediately below the-win-dow and one floor lower, but MacKenzie missed this and struck the footpath near the kerb, narrowly mis - ing a motor-car parked in the roadway. He fell just outside the entrance to the public bar and in view of those inside. A man had entered from the street just a moment previously and was in the doorway when the fatality occurred.

People in another building in sight of the hotel saw the whole incident. MacKenzie left several messages on the writing table in the hotel. One read: “To the management of this hotel: Please report this accident to 2 Aitken terrace.”

An ambulance was summoned, but MacKenzie had been killed outright in the faß.

MAN’S - DEATH AFTER RESCUE FROM RIVER

(United Press Association) WANGANUI, January 26. A fatality occurred today when John Walsh, a middle-aged man, believed to be a resident of Ohakune, died in the public hospital tonight after having been rescued from the river below the Dublin street bridge. QUICK ACTION BY BOY SCOUT ( (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 26. When Ivor James Lawson, aged eight years,) ran home screaming with his clothes ablaze from contact with a grass fire at Kingsland, his elder brother, Alan Lawson, a member of the Wesley Boy Scout troop, seized a blanket and wrapped it round his brother and rolled him over and over, extinguishing the flames. Both boys were taken to hospital severely burned.' The younger brother’s condition is serious, but improving, but Alan Lawson later returned home.

SUICIDE AT SEA (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 26. Wireless advice from the master of the British steamer Beatus notifies the suicide of a member of the ship’s complement at sea. The Beatus is now on a voyage from Galveston, Texas, to Auckland where she is expected on Monday. Following the customary procedure, an inquiry will be held before the superintendent of mercantile marine at Auckland, Captain Wilcox, when the ship reaches port. Cases of suicide at sea rarely come before the shipping authorities and an inquiry when loss of life occurs not as the result of casualty to the ship is held at the discretion of the Minister of Marine.

ELDERLY MAN FRACTURES THIGH

Charles Couling, 83 years old, of Herbert street, fell at his home yesterday and fractured a thigh. He was admitted to the Southland hospital for treatment.