INQUEST.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 274, 1 May 1873, Page 5

INQUEST.

On Tuesday, 29th tilt., an inquiry was held at the Tuapeka Hospital, before { the District Coroner, Vincent Pyke, Esq., and a jury, touching the death of a I Waipori miner, named David Jones. The jury being duly sworn, Mr. George Walker was appointed foreman. The jury then viewed the body, after which the following evidence was taken : j John Frazer, deposed that he was a packer, and lived at Dickson's Hotel, Waipori road. He recognised the body as that of David Jones, whom he had known for the last five years. He believed deceased was a Welshman, and about the age of 59. He was generally a temperate man, although occasionally., perhaps, once in six months, he would get on the spree for a day or two. Deceased worked about a mile from Dickson's Hotel. On the 24tn (Thursday), deceased came to Dickson's Hotel, where he remained till Sunday, the 27th, when' he j (witness) brought him to the Hospital. Deceased, when he came to Dickson's on Thursday, complained of a lump in his throat, and Mrs. Dickson the same day sent to Lawrence for jnedicine, which Dr. I Stewart sent. The nfedicine was in two bottles, one to be taken'internally, the other to be used as a gargle. The medicine was used by deceased. On Friday morning, at 7 o'clock, witness gave deceased, who was costive, abont half a tumbler full of caster oil, but it had no effect, and the same morning, about 11 o'clock, Mrs. Dickson gave him another half-tumbler full, which also had no effect. On Sunday morning, Mrs. Dickson gave him a- dose of salts, which had effect upon him. Deceased did not care about coming to the Hospital, but being recommended to do so by some diggers, he was advfeed to go. He seemed a deal better on the road. He left the cart in which he was conveyed about Shumate's Hotel, and bathed his face in the creek. After regaining the cart, he rested on his knees the remainder of the way to the Hospital. I Deceased said that before he came to Dickson's, on the Thursday, he was working in a dam, and after going home io boil the billy, he was seized with a cold shaking. Witness saw him last alive at i 3.15 p.m. at the Hospital, and was not present when he died. Deceased was not drinking during the time he was at Dickson's. Alexander Stewart, Resident Surgeon of the Tuapeka Hospital, deposed that he received deceased into the Hospital on Sunday last. He was then in a hopeless state, and did not expect him to live an hour. He (witness) told Frazer deceased would not live a quarter of an hour. Witness had made a post mortem examination of the body, and in opening the left sideof the chest, a regular gush of purulent matter escaped. His (witness's) opinion was that deceased died from oppression of the chest; in other words suffocation and the fever that would naturally accompany a complaint, such as abscess of the tonsils and surrounding parts, such as deceased seemed to have been suffering from. Ob the right side of the chest there was no escape of matter at all. Dr. Stewart here remarked that he believed had deceased been under medical treatment earlier, a fatal issue would, is 'all probability, have been prevented. He died at 5.15 p.m. The jury at once returned a verdict of death from natural causes, in accordance with the medical testimony.