INQUEST.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 941, 12 May 1883, Page 2

INQUEST.

An inquest was held at the Hospital tor, day on the body of Joseph Mulligan, who,. was found dead in his bed at the Chertsey Hotel on , before the Corofiet (Dr Trevor) and a jury, of whom Mr St! Hill was chosen foreman. The body having been viewed, 1 The Coroneceaid-Jthafc certainly one of sudden death. A certificate of death was given by a medical man, but from circumstances attending the matter,, a doubt was thrown on the bond fides jof - this certificate. The doctor had be(eh summoned to attend, but he had not put in an appearance. I The following evidence was taken 7 Henry Hampton, fatmer, living At Chertsey, deposed that he knew the deceased,. Joseph Mulligan, ,whp was. a farm laborer,’ formerly in the enaploy of Robirt Hampton. On the 26tb April he was paid off, Oq the Monday r following the deceased stated he had a cheque Sof; L 22 13s Bd. On the Friday following deceased left; in gpod/hqalth for Rakaia. On Monday, 30th April, saw him at the Chertsey Hotel, when he asked witness ;to “ shout ” a drink fpr himj ah his money was all gone. He then seemed sober. He had lost a cheque for LlO, which he had. obtained from.the hotelkeeper, Shephard. Deceased promised to come to wopk’ for witness on the following but he did not come till Thursday, when he was then drunk. Witness took him into the house, and next morning he wjaA so bad that he could not work. He said he had never felt so bad after a *' spred ” before,, and the next dayhe j was np better and complained of his head being very; had. He refuaed to take any dinner on < the next day, and fre voraitted blood. On Sunday witness wished to call in a doctqr, but deceased would not hear of it. Witness on that day went to the Rakaia, and’ came back with a constable. Found on arrival the deceased lying in the tussock unable to stand. Obtained a trap and brought him to the hotel. The last time witness saw, deceased alive was-on last Sunday sitting on the steps'of the hotel. Informed the landlord of the deceased having vprqited bipod. , . T , , ■ ’ By . the ■ Jury told witness that his money was all spent on the Monday following the Friday when he had received the pheqqe, : .with ttys .exception bf : a cheque given him in change by Sheppard, which ho had lost. Knew deceaaed

fortenyetrfs. -V j *: By the Coroner —"Was informed by the deceased that he had never reached the Bakaia, and'that'he had remained at the Chertaey Hotel all the time. ! : William Hilliard, mounted-constable in charge of the Bakaia Station,: saidthat he remembered the last witness coming on the 6th May to Bakaia. Accsmpanmd Mr Hampton to Ohertaey.d and fouiid deceased lying in the tussocks nekr the hotel. Deceased told witness that he was d.to Sheppard’s hotel, where he had been invited. Shej> hard had said that if he would come he would make it all right. Deceased was very weak, and only able to walk a vety short distance. , He said he had been ‘drinking at Mr ■’Shephs ! r'd’s,‘ < ‘arid that the latter had changed a cheque for him audited given him ; another qheqna- for LlO, which he had lost, as part of the change.' Asked deceased if he wished steps to he taken respecting the lost cheque, and he answered,. “ No j;l;db.inot wish the police to interfere." Witness asked Mr Shop: hard about the cheque, and he said he had written to'AshbqrtOd to/stop payment, of it, and that he had received an answer that it had been paid in. Mr Shephard said he did: hot know who hdd ; paid the cheque in, and that it had been drawn payable to exchange. Beceived from the registrar a certificate, produced, signed Edward 0. Foot, stating that deceased' had died from heart disease. He also summoned; Dr Foot ti tha inquest. William Cox, at rekeeper at Bakaia, said that Dr Edward Foot was lodging with him up till last night. Remembered Sheppard coming for the doctor on the morning of the 9th. The doctor left about 11 o’clock, and returned at halfpast 8 in the evening. At that time he was quite intoxicated. Yesterday , the doctor tojd witness that medicine should have been sent to the deceased, and that if he had received it Mulligan would probably not have died. The doctor came home last night so drunk that witness re* fused to admit him. Sergeant Felton said that the reason he had called this witness was to show that the doctor had given the certificate of death at a time when he was not sober enough to know what he was doing. Edward Hogg, cook for a threshing machine camp at Chertsey : On 26th April left the camp and next day saw deceased at the Chertsey Hotel. Deceased was then drinking, and also next day. Witness was also drinking, and both wore “ half-seas over.” Left on Saturday and returned the following morning, when he again saw deceased at the hotel, and he told witness that all his money was done. Deceased was suffering from the effects of drink. Remained at the hotel on Sunday and Monday. Both were drinking, but not heavily. On Tuesday deceased was spending money freely, and was under the influence ef drink. On the 3rd inst. witness helped deceased into a trap to go to Mr Hampton’s. Did not see deceased till the following Sunday, when ho returned to the Chertsey Hotel. ;

This witness here said that he wished to make a statement, and on the Coroner acceding to the request, he said that lie had travelled a good deal, and, had been in the habit of drinking, but fie had never known any place where liquor had knocked him down so easily as at the. Ohertsey Hotel. i , The Coroner said that it was quite ia proper statement to make, and ho hop4d the witness would benefit from the experience he had had. i 1 Hugh Dodherty, servant at Hotel, deposed he knew the deceased.'; Remember Seeing him at the hotel. Had only seen him the worse for drink once, on 1 the day he left the hotel with Mr Haxnp-

ton. •On the 10th May, about -.6 o’clock ' I in the morning, wentinto the room whore , the deceased was sleeping and found him lying dead in the bed. On the 7th, wit-! ness found a lilO cheque (produced) in ■ the waistcoat pocket of deceased. Would - say positively that he had seen deceased sober for days together at the hotels Sergeant Felton said that this' witless was well-known to the police as an habitual drunkard, and no reliance was to he . - placed on his word. -H« had called f him to show ,tho class of people at this hotel. Matthew Charles Sheppard, landlord of the Chertsey Hotel, said that deceased came te his hotel on a Friday (the date - of which he, could not 1 remember. ' His employer, Mr Robert Hampton, came that evening and witness', thought he stayed that night, but- would' not be certain. Deceased remained till the follow* - ing Thursday when he went away with Mr H. Hampton. On the Sunday following (May 6) witness was Informed deceased• was ill. He put a horse in the buggy and went with two others to see him at Mr -Hampton’s. Offered. to drive deceased down to the hotel, but he declined saying that if he came.he would walk. Witness returned for the deceased, batsaw-thim about 200yds. from - the hotel andbjdught him back. Shortly after ' deceased .went to bed, and in answer to a request'wit* neaa ;l gaye him some soiip. to Christchurch on the foUowi^g^y ; on returning was told that deceased had got up, but had .gone to bpd again. He then said ‘ that he felt' better, " and at, , his request witness gave -him iome 'vriak brandy and water, and left some and arrowroot for him during’’ the-fright. On Tuesday deceased'was r m mnbh the . same state. ; Offered’to obtain a doctor, but it was declined. On Wednesday went* to Rakaia to fetch Dr Foot, jmd.,he came at witness’s request. - The doctor : on. see* ■ ing the deceased saidit JwM.'a..casfc» of 1- heart disease* and witness asked what* he should do. Told, the I. he had treated the man, sand-was told that he could not;doibetter;i/tDc Foot promised to return the following . day. ' Saw deceased again early on Thurs-day-morning, and at his. request gaVo him ' ■ a little brandy, which the dodtdr hid'Aaid : would do him no harm.-. -.Atabout 6 o’clock-Doherty came to wltneas^a-door •i find stated that he thought Mulliganswaa 1 dead. Went to the room and found .that 1 deceased was dead, but .warm. Rode immediately to the doctor at* Rakaia, and asked him to give a certificate of death, ; and he said he would lodge ft'! With' the ' registrar. , > 'By Sergeant Felton : Did not say any* L thing to the doctor about - making it all 1 right about the death. Deceased gave J witness a cheque for L 22 odd,-and took as ’ chonge cash and a cheque for .LlO. ; De- ! ceased told witness he had lost,, the ' cheque. Did write to Ashburton to stop * the cheque, but had since iiscovered that > the letter had not gone. Did npt raqem- ’ ’ her telling Constable. Hileiard|thathehad received, an answer from the Bank. Re* 1 speoting the cheque for LlO produced, witness obtained it from his sjife qn. Mon- ■ day, the 7th, who had received !it . from JPooherty. - .

By the jury : When.the doctor came on .the Wednesday to witness 1 ! house ha .was perfectly sober, and he.left in less than half an hoar. By Sergeant Felton: Only wished to bring the deceased back to the hotel oat of compassion and not to get hint i Odt of the hands of the police. • CM William Graham Rosa, duly ?qualified - medical practitioner, said that no had made a post mortem examination of the deceased. The only external marks':’of violence was that the skin of the nose was taken qff for about, half /an inch. The. body is that of a 4hin, spare man. The lungs were: slightly conjested, the liver was enormously large,' and in the condition of a* chronic drunkard’s liver. The brain was . healthy, although there was an effusion into i the meninges. The heart was perfectly healthy in every way, . all “the valves were , sound, and the cavities held water. ' The stomach had on the leaser curvature a small, perforating nicer, about'the size' of s goqsequill in diameter:’' The stomach'was almost empty. - The right kidney was hbnhal, but the left was entirely ' destroyed by suppurated nephritis j'Vritness 'believed the cause bfideath -to have-been rupture of the perforating nlceri ■ ‘ - ;1 - By the Goroner.. ■ Excessive drinking would ;have accelerated death by inducing the more rapid perforation of the uldbr. There was no sign or odour -of -slwhol' about the stomach.

A telegram was read by Sergeant_Foltqn, who said he had just received it from Dr Foot. It stated that hehadloslthe train 1 , and was" unable to procure * a hots©, and could not consequently attend the inquest, /v • ■{ The Coroner said that the medical-evi-dence showed that death had not. ; resulted from alcoholism, and the' therefore retard a verdibt df dwh naturalcauses. There tfaij, another question, and that was the maniier in which the hotel was managed, as disclosed by ' the evidence of JHKupEon and Hogg. The , latter* d^ter^/rradit for the evidence ha gave,aa, thooghrhis manner was peculiar, doubt that it was true: It a wßs.afapiwn that a drunken debauch had be,en going on for some time, audit wesfor the jury to consider if they should appends a;rider to their, verdict, to express any ppinion'on the question. The jury returned a verdict of “Death from natural causes,” and added the following rider —“ From the evidence produced in this case, we recommend the Licensing Bench to take into consideration the propriety of withholding the license of the Chertsey Hotel tUithejQs* vernment can see fit to establish police supervision at Chertsey.” ' . .