ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7330, 17 February 1902, Page 3

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

[Per Press Association.] PAHIATUA, Feb. 17. A bookbinder named Fred. Akens died suddenly in. the. police cells on Saturday morning. At the inquest, the jury returned a verdict to the .effect that death had been accelerated by excessive drinking. . At Makuri, a settkr named William Neill shot himself in his whare. He was last seen alive on Friday. WANGANUI, Feb. 17. A girl named Hughes, aged two years, died at Waverley, last. week, ari a result, of burns. The child took ai fire stick from under a copper when its mother, was,washing, and' its clothes caught fire. It sustainedl fatal injuries before its' motto could extinguish tbe flames. WELLINGTON, Feb. 17. Thomas Venables, a; single man, about twenty-seven, was thrown from a dray while engaged carting wood near Masterton. One of -the wheels of the vehicle passed over his head, and death was instantaneous. The deceased was a. recent arrival from England. NELSON, Feb. 17. A girl named Liley, aged eight, and a boy named Ruff ell, aged five, were downed in a lagoon at Stoke Sands yesterday. A woman and a- child; 'tod! a narrow escape of drowning in the same lagoon on New Year's Day. INVERCARGILL, Feb. 17. David Wairaockj a well-known settler, was found dead in a ditch on the roadside leading to his property on Sunday morning. He was last seen at about eleven o'clock on Saturday night, going home, Ifc is surmised that a fall stunned! him, and that he was drowned 1 , although there was only a few inches of water in the ditch. , It is said that a special Providence watches over drunken men, and 'something of the kind watched over the life and limbs of a Kaiapoi-^passenger by the north traini on Saturday evening last. He had evidently been imbibing freely, and persisted in standing on a car platform. Just after the Lincoln Road crossing had been passed, the curves in the rails caused the carriage to swerve, and the maw pitched neck-and* crop forward on to the line. Strange to say, the two passengers who were with him on the platform never reported the matter until the train was approaching Belfast, when one of them' informed the guard. It appears, however, that their companion escaped literally with only a severe shaking. Realising that he had missed the train, he returned to Lincoln Road, where he subsequently got a lift home. About twelve o'clock to-day a very small boy named Sydney Parsons jumped on to the step of the St Albans steam-roller, which, was being driven past the St Albans Borough Council Chambers. The driver did not notice the boy on the step, aod when he reversed 1 the engine the boy jumped off with the result that one of the wheels pinched his kg. The sufferer was at once taken to Mrs Pope's private nospitol, which is close by. The inquest touching the death of James Cooksley, who was found' dead 1 ia the Heafchcote River, near the Opawa Bridge, early on Sunday morning, will be held in the City 'Morgue to-day at 4.30 p.m., before Mr R. Beetham, District. Coroner.