ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2769, 29 January 1895, Page 4

ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, ETC.

Miss Pridham, who fell off the train at Johusouville, Wellington, on the 22nd inst., has recovered consciousness. Kitchener, the accountant in the National Bank at Tauranga, shot himself in the head at half-past 2 o'clock on Friday. John Page, aged 73, a resident of Mornington, Dunedin, died suddenly, it is presumed from apoplexy. Charles Murdoch was charged at the Invercargill Police Court with committing a criminal assault on a girl seventeen years of age. The evidence showed that accused forced his way into the house in the absence of the girl's parents at midnight on Saturday night. He was committed for trial.

Mr John Russell, a well-known importer of draught stock and judge at the agricultural and pastoral shows at the South Island, died at Invercargill on Thursday, aged 58. He had been suffering for some months from an internal disease.

A shocking boating fatality happened on Thursday evening on the west coast opposite Aratapu, Auckland, in which Evelyn Hogg, Bessie Scott, and Ann Woollams, ail aged about 16, were drowned. A large number of Wairoa residents were camped on the coast, holiday making. A lagoon in which sixteen of their number were bathing became like a whirlpool when the tide rushed in, the wash from the breakers assisting to carry the swimmers seawards. Mr Querring, schoolmaster at Aratapu, assisted several ashore. A large number of people who were standing on the beach witnessed the accident and were powerless to help the unfortunate people owing to their inability to swim. The body of Miss Bessie Scott was secured quickly, but all efforts to effect restoration of life proved unavailing. Miss Evelyn Hogg's body was found half a mile further along the beach. Miss Annie Woollams' body has not yet been recovered. Mrs Hope and Florrie Jones had a narrow escape from sharing a similar fate. The same morning a little daughter of Hector Alcock, of Aratapu, was drowned at the Kauri Company's boom.

A iran named Richard Flutey was drowned in the Uraumea river, near Pahiatua, on Friday. He shot a duck and fell in in trying to recover it. He could not swim. The body has been recovered.

Mr J. J. Moynihan, the solicitor who was thrown from his horse at Westport on the 17th instant, died on Saturday night from the effects of the accident.

On Sunday morning the body of a man named Jame 3 O'Brien was found in a watering tank in Victoria street, Christchurch. O'Brien was a chimney swneper, and about 70 years of age. In January, 1893, he attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head with a small pistol. A son of Mr J. B. Taylor, a farmer at the Tables, Otago, aged two and a-half years, was drowned on Friday by falling into a well.

On Saturday night a fatal shooting affray occurred on board the German barque Franz, now lying in the Timaru harbor. Two of the men were arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, and shortly afterwards a third-named Ernest Thomas Peter Thompson, aged 21, was shot by the second officer, Frederick Schiner, aged 26, in the bowels just below the navel. The captain and first officer were ashore at the time. Thompson had been ashore and got drunk, but returned and went on to the poop to the officers' quarters and wanted to fight. The second mate, who had turned iu, hearing the row, came out, and told the man to go ashore and to come aboard again next morning when he was sober. The sailor at once rushed at the mate, and the latter ran into the chief officer's cabin, picked up a 6-chambered revolver, which was fully loaded, and came out again. As soon as the sailor saw him he made another rush at the officer, who then fired one shot in the air and a second shot fair at the man's body, the bullet entering the bowels. The sailor fell to the deck, and was dragged into the cabin, where he was lying when the police arrived. After being taken to th. 9 hospital, Thompson lay in a semi-couHcious state till Sunday morning when ho recovered consciousness. An operation was performed, but no trace of the bullet could be found. As very little hope was held out for the man's recovery, Mr Wray attended at the hospital again on Sunday evening, and iu the presence of Schiner, who was arrested, took down Thompson's depositions. Peritonitis had set in, and the map waa not expected to live through the night.