ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 301, 13 May 1913, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

A DROWNING FATALITY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wanganui, Monday. A young man named .Spencer Abbott, aged 21, a fireman on the river steamer Wairua, fell overboard on Saturday and was drowned. The vessel was about fourteen miles above Pipiriki, and there was a Hood in the river at the time. ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED. Invercargill, Monday. V. M. Cochrane, an accountant, aged 42, was drowned in the New Diver on .Sunday afternoon through a boat capsizing. His companion, Cecil Hazlett. made a plucky effort at rescue and got Cochrane ashore, but life was extinct. SUICIDE OF A GROOM. Christohurch, Monday. Alexander Barrett, lately a groom at a local delivery stables, was found dead at Avonsiele yesterday with a bullet wound in his head. A revolver lay bv his side. A GROOM'S SUICIDE. Christchurch, Last night. At the inquest on Alex. Chas. Barrett, who shot himself on Saturday night, the evidence showed that the deceased was a very sensitive man and worried considerably over the fact that the lady for whom he had worked some time as a groom, had considered him impertinent. A verdict was returned that death was due to a revolver wound, while deceased was temporarily of unsound mind. THE BLASTING FATALITY. Dunedin, Last Night. An inquest on the fatal blasting accident at the Chain Halls tunnel was held to-day. Evidence showed that the deceased, Harry Smith, was placing gelignite cartridges in position in the hole, and Gardiner (acting as ganger) was pushing them home with the usual copper tamping rod. The hole was on a slight incline, but almost horizontal, and the second of the two plugs evidently did not go to the bottom when it was put in The tamping pad was applied gently tc the cartridge, and at that moment ai explosion occurred. The cap and fusn were not attached, and were seen unusel after the accident. Dr. Stewart, residei..t surgeon at the hospital, said that the cause of death was severe concussion of the brain. A verdict of accidental death was returned, with no blame attachaole to anyone. I