CORONER'S INQUESTS

Colonist, Volume X, Issue 949, 30 October 1866, Page 2

CORONER'S INQUESTS

SUDDEN DEATH ON BOARD THE CLAUD HAMILTON.

WOMAN DROWNED IN THE RIVEB.

An inquest was held in Mr. Wright's Ship Hotel, a t the Port, on the body of Richard Eagar, a Commia. sion Agent residing in Wellington, who died after a very short illness on board the steamer Claud Hamil. ton. Mr. Eagar, who was a debilitated old gentle. man of sixty-three years of age, was seized oq Wednesday evening with a severe attack of sickness in which "his stomach rejected everything, and he gradually sank until yesterday morning, at four o'clock, when he died. Mr. Eagar was brother of Geoffrey Eagar, Esq., the Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales. He stated before his death that he had long suffered from severe attacks of acidity of the stomach. The evidence of Captain Ponsonby, and Mr. Sewell Purser of the Claud Hamilton, went to prove what is stated above, and the jury, of whom Mr. Joseph . Garrard was foreman, returned a verdict of" died from natural causes." Mr. Eagar was in high spirits when on board the vessel prior to being seized with illness, the reason being, as he said, that his brother, the Treasurer of New South Wales, had promised him the office of Mail 'Agent, on a steamer running between Sydney and Wellington. Mr. Eagar stated to the purser that he knew he would not get better, and that he had made his will. WOMAN DROWNED. .... Yesterday morning early, as Mr. Joseph Harley was examining thb river Matai on horseback after the rain of the previous day, he observed about two hundred yards below Collingwood-street Bridge, a portion of what seemed a dead body. He rode into the river, and found that he was correct; that it vn» the dead body of a female. He went for the police and Constable Bradcock discovered marks of a woman's boot diverging from ihe road on tbe upper side of the bridge, and going towards the water, only a few yards above the bridge. The body proved to be that of Sarah Rowley, the wife of the carman now in prison waiting his trial on a charge of robbery. It appears from the evidence led before Dr. Squires the Coroner, and a Jury, that on Sunday night, about ten o'clock, she had called at the house of Mrs, Jeffrey, situated by the river Bide, and asked for some milk. She was slightly intoxicated at the time, hut seemed in good spirits, stating that she had been seeing her husband. On leaving, Mrs. Jeffrey and a young woman named M'Cabe showed her a light, and after she reached the middle of the road, asked if she was all right, and was answered in the affirmative, The night was very dark, and there was not only no lamp lit on Collingwood Bridge, but none of the public lamps in town was lighted. There was every appearance that the unfortunate woman, in makino for the bridge, turned too soon, and walked inio the river, which was then in flood, and was at once swept down to where her body was found. The Jury, through their foreman, Mr. Rout, returned the foilowing verdict, and perhaps the Board of Works will explain why, on a dark night such as Sunday was, the lamps were in total eclipse, although they are often lighted when there is far less need for them :— " That the said Sarah Rowley, on the 29th day, of October, 1866, was found drowned in the River Maitai, near the Collingwood Bridge, and we believe that she accidentally walked into the river above the bridge, having, through the darkness of the night, and from the fact of the lamp not being lighted, mistaken the road, and we hereby call the attention of the authorities to the necessity of better regulations in lighting the lamps in the streets and thoroughfares of the city."