PERSONAL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19168, 26 November 1927, Page 5

PERSONAL.

(SFICUL fO THI KISS.) GREYMOUTH, November 25. Mr W. D. Olney has arrived from Victoria to take over the management of the Greymouth branch of the Commercial Bank. Mr T. Craig, Railway Commercial Agent, left this morning for the Frani Josef glacier. Matron Dunsford, of Westport, has been invited to act as examiner at the practical and oral examinations in genera] nursing, which will be held at Greymouth on December 7th. Mr J. Smeaton, Mayor of Brunnerton, is an inmate of the Grey Hospital. Miss Vera Groom, who was operated on in Christchurch a few weeks ago, is making good progress, and hopes to return to Greymouth in a few days. Advice was received to-day by Mr W. Kilgour, of Graymouth, of the death at Sydney, of his daughter, Mrs Thelma Connellan. after a long illness Deceased was a native of Sydney, and was 26 years of age. She is survived by her husband and one child. Drowning Tragedy Feared. Up to this evening, the police had found no trace of the boy, Charles Sweetman, who has been missing from his home since yesterday afternoon. He left home to go whitebaiting, and it is surmised that while fishing from the understructure of the wharf, which was in a slippery condition from silt washed down by the recent floods, he slipped and knocked his head, falling into the swollen river. His whitebait net was found under the wharf this morning. His parents, Mr and Mrs Charles Sweetman, reside in Mackay street, Greymouth. Smoking Strictly Prohibited. Another Dobson miner will appear before the Magistrate at Greymouth shortly to answer a charge of having a cigarette in his possession while in the mine. Arahura River. The Grey and Westland Acclimatisation Societies have received advice from Wellington to the effect that it was proposed to pass a Bill making the Arahura river a closed river for trout fishing except to the Maoris. It had been stated previously that the river was proclaimed sacred under the Treaty of Waitangi, but investigations proved that this was not so, and because of this several Maoris living at Arahura were proceeded against in the Hokitika Court about 18 months ago for taking trout out of the river out of season, and fines were inflicted At that time the' plea that the river was n sanctuary open only to the Maori race failed. The Grey and Hokitika Societies have telegraphed to the Prime Minister protesting against such an enactment, and pointing out that trout was being liberated in the river from time to time, and that last season 70,000 fry was liberated there. Tunnel Traffic. The amount of goods traffic sent from the West Coast through tho Otira tunnel for the week ending to-morrow • totals 8918 tons. Miner Injured. Through being knocked down by a runaway rake of coal boxes in a section of the Taipo mine, Denniston, Jack Morgan had one of his legs badly fractured. He was conveyed for some miles by relays of miners to the mine mouth, and then taken by a motor ambulance to .the Denniston Cottage Hospital. Badio Broadcasting. With a view to getting better broadcasting results, Mr George Hardy is investigating the possibilitips of the higher levels and back country in the Denniston district, where he will spend some weeks before returning to his company's headquarters at Christchurch.

Fire Brigades' Demonstration. The West Coast Fire Brigades' Annual Demonstration will take place tomorrow at Denniston. Teams from Greymouth,' Kumara, Cobden, Otira, Beefton, and Westport will take partFatal Fall. An inquest was held at 4 p.m. to-day at Eunanga, before Mr H. MeConnell, J.P., acting-Coroner, and a jury of four, concerning the death of James Hal|dane, miner, of Seven Mile Koad, Eunanga, who was killed yesterday afternoon at the Ten Mile through a fall on a bush track while ho was returning from work in company with his six mates. The proceedings were conducted by Sergeant J. Smyth, of Greymouth. Mr "W. J. Joyce was present on behalf of the co-operative party to which deceased belonged,. and Mr W. P. McCarthy represented the owner of the Ten Mile Colliery. Evidence of identification was given by William Howard, miner, of Dunollie. Deceased, he said, was a native of Scotland, 47 years of age, and was a widower with three children, John McTaggart, miner, Dunollie, said he was a member of a co-operative party of seven who worked the Briandale colliery at Ten Mile. Witness, who worked at trucking, called the six other members of the party out of the mine rather earlier than usual yesterday on account of the fact that the creek which they ordinarily crossed at a ford in going to and from the mine was flooded, and the water was rising.. After the men had washed and changed, however, the creek had risen to such an extent that there was no chance of crossing it. The party then took another route through the bush and over the hills in order to reach the road without crossing the stream. There was water backed up beside the creek, and through this witness, who was then wet himself, carried the deceased and John Price on his back, taking them farther along the creek so that they should not get wet. Witness then told deceased to go ahead, and that he, with Richard Barker (deputy in charge of the mine), would catch up to him. Deceased had about four chains' start f Barker and witness. After they climbed the hillside ' about two or three chains away from the creek, witness came across the body of Haldane lying down on the hill. Picking np the body, he could see no sign of life. Barker at once commenced to use artificial respiration, whilst witnesß ran ahead =io bring the rest of the party back to the scene. Then witness ran back to the mine to bring the first aid outfit. After this witness proceeded along the creek and sent word to Dr. Meade. The body, when found, was lying face downwards, some dried overgrowth partly covering the face. The body was facing in the opposite direction to that in whieh Haldane had been proceeding, and the left arm was underneath the head. The body was only about five or Bix feet away from the track usually travelled. Haldane might have fallen a distance of from ten to fourteen feet. A few feet above where the body was lying witness found a tree had been cnt, there being the stump with a stone beside it, and over either of these the deceased could have fallen. The country was slippery through the rain. Deceased had not complained of illness, and appeared to be a robust man. He and the rest of the party had only been over the track once before. Evidence on similar lines was given by Eichard Barker. Dr George Walter Meade detailed the nature of deceased's injuries. There

was extensive bruising in front of the neck, a small wound in the forehead, and evidence of a fracture and dislocation of the cervical vertebrae. A verdict was returned that deceased met his death by falling from the track while descending from the Briandale mine to the main road, no blame being attachable to anyone.