ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 892, 11 August 1910, Page 8

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

MOTOR-CYCLE ACCIDENT, FATAL TERMINATION. Samuel Smith, the young man who was severely injured in a motor-cyclo accident in Adelaide Road on Tuesday, died at tho Wellington Hospital at 12.20 p.m. yesterday. Yesterday the city coroner, Mr. W. R. Haselden, conducted an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the occurrence. Sergeant Mathioson appearing for tho police. Mr. Alfred Smith, father of tho deceased, said the latter was twenty-one years old last October and was a woodcarver by occupation; Charles Wilson Denby, cycle and motor mechanic, deposed that Smith camo to his shop about noon on Tuesday, and at his own request, was given the loan of a motor-cycle. Witness helped Smith to mount and saw him start down Adelaide road. He seemed able to manage it. He was an expert cyclist, and. know how to handle a motor, although ho had • not previously been on a motor-cycle on tho road. In his progress down Adelaide Road he swerved to avoid a baker's cart and collided with a cast-iron verandah post. He fell with the machine. Witness ran down and released him. He seemed quite unconscious. Soon afterwards Smith was taken in a. cab to the hospital. ' Sydney James Simpson, house surgeon at Wellington Hospital,- stated that Smith, on being admitted on Tuesday at 12.30 p.m. to the hospital, was suffering from a fractured skull, fractured jaw and considerable shock. He was semiconscious, gave his name and. told tho nurse he had fallen off a bicycle.. He gradually became unconscious and died yesterday at 12.20 p.m. from the effects of tho fracture in his skull. ■ The coroner returned a verdict that Samuel Smith died from the effects of a fractured skull accidentally, received whilo motor-cycling. , '.' '. • SUICIDE ON R.M.S. lONIC, r While tho mail steamer lonic was crossing the Southern Ocean on July 21, a greaser named Joseph Gilliland committed suicide. It appears that some of the firemen were assembled in the 'forecastle after coming off duty, shortly after 8 o'clock in the evening. Gilliland was in, his bunk, but nothing untoward was noticed, except a slight noise, which did not denoto that - a tragedy -had. taken place.- A little later,-however, it ..was discovered that the unfortunate man-had cut his-throat, and life ; was practically extinct. The deceased was. buried at sea shortly afterwards; He resided at' Canning Town, East London,, and, had been married only some nino months before his death. No causo is assigned for the deed.-.

lICW MUCH VIOLENCE? | (By TcfoKrapn.—Press Association.) Auckland, August 10. At the inquest on John Skoard, about 30 years of age, who died on Monday, it was alleged that deceased had been acting in an offcnsivo manner towards little girls, these including a child of . one Alfred Lindsay. . Lindsay stated that, ' as he approached Slieard, his (Lindsay's) " little girl was calling out. Witness I rushed up and pulled her away. Sheard . fell backwards, with his head near the stone gutter; he rose, but fell again, and ' remained on tho ground. Deceased ap- ' peared to have been drinking, and was ' staggering with tho child on his back. ■ After'ho first fell (here was blood in tho • gutter where ho struck his head. Witness,- in answer to the police, stated that ho did not push ov jostle deceased ' in any way. The coroner said that it was quite clear ' that deceased had no business acting as ho had been doing. A parent, _ under ' such circumstances, would be justified in ? using a certain amount of violence, but E it was of course a question of degree. ' It was decided that a jury should have. ' tho full facts before it, and the inquest | was adjourned until Thursday. \ STRUCK BY LOCOMOTIVE. 1 Christchurch, August 10. 1 At tho inquest concerning the death of • George Sidney Bezznut, who was killed I by being struck by a locomotive at Tcm--3 pleton on Saturday, tho evidence showed' s that deceased was rather deaf. A verdict of accidental death was returned, the J- coroner adding that there was no evit denco of negligence on tho part of tho t railway officials.. A FALL OP COAL, 3 Greymouth, August 10. ■■■ j Gils. Rogers, a miner at Paparoa, met s with a severe • accident • through a fall of coal. Ho has been removed to tho (. hospital. / ■> CHILD'S BODY FOUND. Christchurch,'August 10. Tho body of an infant was'-found'on the bank of the River-Avon this afteri-. noon. It was very much decomposed. II ' ' f . ' '■ FOUND DEAD LN HIS HUT. r ■ '■ Nelson, August 10. s . An old age pensionor, John Morton, s was found dead in.his hut at,. Bedstead 1 (iullj, CollingwooU, Death was due to i) senile decay. y FALL FROM A CLIFF. . a : Napier, August 10. Mrs. Blewden, who. lias.been lying una conscious in the hospital for the last.week e in consequence of injuries sustained in a e fall.from a cliff, died this afternoon. An ■ inquest will bo held tomorrow.