FATAL PRACTICAL JOKE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1745, 20 January 1888, Page 2

FATAL PRACTICAL JOKE

I A singular charge of murder hn been I preferred against Henry Harklns an ! employee m a wool-washing works on the I banks of the Yarra, (Victoria ). He bad I come to the works la a drunken state after the dinner hour one day last week, and the manager, Mr NettletoD, would not allow him to start work, He, however remained about the premises indulging m practioa) jokes at the jxpenseof his fellow workmnn, culm I anting In hit throwing one of them, John Wantoni, bodily off a floating platform into the river. The man rose to the surface once only, und was afterwards aeen no more Wantom 1 was unable to ewim and hia fellow workmen, who witnened ths cooarrenoe, were unable to save him, Harkens stood on tbe platform until Waniotu sank the second time, and then walked away. Tie deceased was a man 48 years 'of age, married and with four ohlldren, fiarkeni had no animosity against him, and simply seamed to be oerrying oat what he regarded as an excellent praotioal joke. He was drunk when arrested, and after he got sober expressed great oontrition at his deed.