THE LATE FATAL ACCIDENT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 2882, 29 July 1878, Page 2

THE LATE FATAL ACCIDENT.

CORONER'S INQtJEST.

An inquest on the body of .William Dale, who met with bis death on the 25th, July, was held on Saturday last, At the school-house, Egmont Village, before Mr. G. D: 'Hamerton, the, Coroner. Edward Olson deposed : On Thursday evening last, the 25th, I was down at Mr. Price's, and my brother came in n great' hurry saying that MrV. Dale had beon down to my place, and that Mr. Dale was lost in tho bush. This was about 7p. in. Mr. Price, m}' brother 1 , nnd I, iramediaiely det bat and called the settlers together to- organise a search party. We proceeded ib Jfr. DSle's^eskieuce, aud Mrs. Dale said he had not, returned, and also informed us where lie had Jast'been .'falling hush. We proceeded to the Clearing', and one of our party fired off a gun and copeyed loudly. We then proceeded up the road,' lo6king for tracks, as he was in the- 'habits of '-looking for his cattle after he had finished bush falling. We then searched his' clearing, calliug him by name, and listeniog for his voicoi We had lanterns. We looked at the edge of the cleariug, and in tho edge of the stauding bush, aud about a chain in we found his clothes; from this wo knew some accident must have happened. This was about 9 p.m.', aud wo continued to search till 11p.m., but we did not fiud the body. At daybreak on the following morning we searched the clearing again, aud John Blake, one of the party, called out that he had found him. We went to where the body was, and found it had been dead several hours. From the position of the body, which was lying under a rnahoe stump, about two feet in diameter, I should imagine that he had been knocked dowu by a fern tree, which had been blown down about six feet from where ho was working, and in its fall stunned him, aud knocked the mahoe on to him. He was apparently cutting at tho time with his left band, and had his back to the fern tree ; had he seen the fern falling he could have run out of tho way, as the grouud'was clear for him. It was blowing heavy gusts from the south-onst that afternoon. On findiug the. bod. ?»Ir. Price immediately went to Ingle--wo . .o give information. We removed the. tri • .-> from thfc body; it took us about ten iniuutcs to do this. It was then about a quarter past eight t o'clock. When the constable came, we assisted to re* move the body herei. It is about one a-half miles from here to that' he was killed. He has been my neighbour for four years. ■ He is married aud has five children. A „ .._»,

Edward Price, who confirmed tho last witness's evidence, added : I took my horse to th.6 search yesterday, as it was arranged if tiny accident had occurred, that I should proceed to Inglewood to give information. Dr. St. George deposed to having viewed the body of William Dale, deceased. lie said : "TTind the' neo"k is l>roken near the atla?, which has severed the spinal chord. There is a Rood deal of bruise about the chest and neck. From jnj.examiuation I am of opiniou that deceased . must have died instantly from the fulling of the tree. Thomas Arthur Taylor, brother-iu-law of the deceased, stated that deceased was forty- two years olii last birthday. He ■ was a native of Birmingham. His wife's maiden name was Mary Ann Taylor. They were married in the Province of Auckland, New Zealand. Deceased has been in tho Colony quite fifteen years. Ho was not a healthy man. He has been ailing for some ■ years, but not sufficient to stop him working: The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental "death."