CORONER'S INQUEST.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 152, 8 October 1872, Page 6

CORONER'S INQUEST.

On Friday, the 27th ult., an inquest vis held at Hawthorne's Clyde Hotel, Clyde, bcore E. j H. Carcw, Esq., the coroner, and a jur, upon! the body of Thomas Hutton, found at lutton-j town on the previous Wednesday. The following is the evidence taken :- James T.ecce, sworn, stated:— lara acapenter's apprentice, residing at Bannockburn.i 1 have I seen the body, lying dead here. I reognise it as being that of Thomas Hutton. I hew him j ' well, and was his apprentice. 1 sawhim last j alive on Sunday, the 7th July, at Banockburn. j , He was then in good health. It waJ between i ! three and four in the afternoon that Jsaw him. He was quite sober then. He was len going from Mr Taylor's shop towards MrHchardsV | punt, which crosses the Kawarau. know that \ ' he had a little drink immediately bef.'e leaving. | I There is no house between where 1 sw him and j the punt. It was on the south side f the river ; ! where I saw him. When I saw hit, Reid Ro- \ | bertson was with him, and going i the same direction. Robertson was not solv. He left the shop with Hutton. Ho was cry drunk. \ Robertson had a bottle of brandyvith him at the shop, and he took this with im when he left. The two men were on good inns together | when they left the shop. Robitson at that 'time was a labourer working fori new bridge. i They had a nobbier each out of tl bottle before leaving the shop. Hutton said tit he was going to the punt to get coal for hinvife from the j other side of the river. To gefcoal, he would have had to cross by the punt. I don't think i Hutton had either money or paps on him when ' he left the shop. '' Thomas Primate :—I am a intman, at preI sent working Richards's puntn the Kawarau, 'land have worked it for near twenty.months. ■ 11 have seen the body lying he. I believe it to II be that of Thomas Hutton. I knew him well 5 j when alive. I saw him last ive on a Sunday. 11 __l believe the 7th July of tl year. I saw him ; i first thSt day at between fcr and rive in the n afternoon. He came downo the punt. Reid. 1 ; Robertson was with him. Lutton appeared to 1 j be sober, but Robertson walnink. He seemed f | to have had as much as a an could take and 3 1 stand up with. Hutton c"e down to see Robertson over the punt, iutton then ordered i some coal from me. Rohtson was crossing to • get to his home. I took utton and Robertson :1 across in the punt. Robeson went towards his 'home; and Hutton wel first to look at the

coal-pit, and then accompani »1 me to mv house on the same side of tha river. Hutton had a lump of coal from the pit to try it at his shop. I did not see that either of them had any drink with them, Hutton stayed with me until about nine or ten at night. He had two drinks of gin at my house,—nothing more. I was away from my house about an hour and a half at one time while Hutton was there. He left my house with me between nine and ten at night. We went to the punt. I was going to put him across. He was then quite sober. I had to return to a part of the track where the lump of coal had been left. It was a pretty dark night, and 1 was carrying a lantern. When I picked up the coal I followed him. I saw him go on to the punt, and was calking to him as I followed. I also got on to the punt, but had not commenced to unfasten it. I got as far as about the middle of the punt, anil Hutton was then talking. He got to the gangway. There is a trap-door to the gangway on both sides of the boat. The trap was then on a level with the deck. I heard him trip as I imagine against the nut of a screwbolt, and at the next step he took he dropped straight down into Ihe river. Had he stepped upon the trap except on the inner edge, the weight of his body would have brought it down. As it was, the trap-door kept in the same position. It is not the custom to pull up the trap-door on leaving a stage, but to leave it as it is to suit the stage on returning to same side of the river. Hutton would have been walking on his own shadow. I was ten or twelve feet behind him. The light from the lantern would not have shown him where the trap-door was. There was no other light but the one I carried upon the punt. The custom is in crossing to hang the lantern on the side of the punt in the direction in which it is to travel. The length of the stageway on the punt is about thirty-three feet. The stageway from the bank of the river upon which the stageway fits is about twenty-four feet. Hutton frequently crossed the punt. It is usual to put up a rail on the trap-doorway, but not till I am about going to bed. A man walked over into the river in the same way about fifteen months ago from the same punt, and was drowned. That was after I'had go.ie to bod, and no rail was then up. Had there been a bar up, Mutton could not have gone over into the river. 1 could not sec Hutton in the water, but I heard him. lie appeared to attempt to swim. The current is very rapid there, —about live or six miles an hour,—ami he was quickly swept away. No one saw Hutton on the si-'e of the river upon which I live except Robertson, my wife, and myself. Robertson went into my house with Hutton and myself, but only stayed a minute or so, and had no drink there. Robertson was then living near the new bridge, but is now, I believe, at the Xevis. Hutton did not to my knowledge leave my house until he was going to cross. John Tunned :—I am a miner, and reside near Muttontown, on the west bank of the Clutha I have seen the body lying dead here. I rirs! saw it on Wednesday evening last, about six or a quarter to it. It was then in the river, lying across a stern-rope of a dredge, moored twelve or fourteen feet from the bank. With the assistance of two others, 1 lie body was got out about half past seven, after dark. We allowed the body to remain there all night, lashed to a rope running from the bank to the dredge. In the morning, the police came and removed the body William Edward Shury, sergeant of police, gave the following particulars as to the clothes found upon the body : —Dark ribbed tweed vest, shepherd's plaid Crimean shirt, common under flannel, white woollen drawers, moleskin trousers, balm oral watertight boots, and brown worsted socks. The only property on deceased was a box of matches.

Dr Sterling gave evidence to the effect tliat the body seemed to have lain in the water a eon. siderable time, —at least six weeks. There were no bruises upon the body that could have been caused before death. The fingers were clenched, as though the deceased had for life. James Taylor, of Cromwell, also identified the body as that of the decease 1 Thomas Hutton. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased " became drowned and suffocated" by accidentally falling into the Kawarau River. To which they added the following rider ;- "The jury consider that great carelessness is shown by punt-owners in the management of their punts, in not fixing up bars or closing gangways when not in use, in not having life-buoys on the punts ready foi service, and also in not providing proper lights after nightf; 11. And they express an opinion that it is urgently necessary that stringent regulations should be framed and enforced for the management and inspection of all punts."

A rather clover swindle was successfully carried out on several people in Christ-church one day recently. During the clay several men were seen hawking what they said were new potatoes brought down from Melbourne in the Tararua, and succeeded in placing several kits of tliem. Of course not a little surprise was expressed at new potatoes being in so early, but the explanation about the Tararua and the apparenty boiuijide appearance of the potatoes set doubts at rest with the purchasers until the time for cooking arrived, when the clever swindle Mas at once detected. The potatoes were, of course, old ones, which, in order to make appear new, had been deprived of the peel, then carefully smtKvthed and rubbed with oil, in order to give them the reqtiisite appearance to deceive the eye—a trick which was >ery cleverly executed. Some of i\\id potatoes were sold at Gd per lb.