ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1692, 7 March 1913, Page 6

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

* ( BALLENA BAY FATALITY. PINNED UNDER PUNT. DEATH OF AN OLD IDENTITY. A fatal accident occurred at Ballena Bay—a small bay on the right of Evans Bay—at 8.50 a.m. yesterday, the victim being a married man named Matthias Clatworthy, aged 63 years, who resides in Tasiuan .Street. At 10 o'clock in the morning the police received . intimation of the accident through the Harbour Board, and Constable M'Kelvey was dispatched to the bay. When the constable arrived he found Clatworthy dead, and had the body removed 'to the morgue. . Prior to his arrival, Dr. Whyte had examined the case and pronounced life extinct. The doctor stated that death must have been instantaneous.

It seems that deceased and Captain Geo. Forbes (of Hawker Street), both in the service of the Harbour Board, were engaged yesterday morning in caulking the bottom of a large punt, weighing several tons. They had to use a jack to'raise tho punt, and they had succeeded in raising three corners of it, and the process of placing blocks under tho fourth had been commenced. Deceased had undertaken this part of the operation, and was standing sideways to the punt, with his head and shoulders under it, when the jack slipped, and tho unfortunate man was pinned between the punt and the blocks. When the punt had been raised it was found that deceased had been severely crushed about the neck and chest, and was apparently dead. Older residents of Wellington will remember that for some time the late Mr, Clatworthy was connected with the firm of Paul Coffey and Clatworthy, shipwrights, whose premises stood on the present site of the To Aro Baths. Deceased was a native of Penzance, Cornwall, and was one of a number .of men. brought out to New Zealand in the seventies by K;nnard Bros., who had secured some large contracts in the Dominion, including the construction' of the Patent Slip in Evans Bay, the extension of the Queen's Wharf, and a section of the Picton-Blonheim railway. Deceased then went into partnership with Mr. Paul Coffey and the late Mr. Thomas S. Dixon, as shipwrights, in Clyde Quay. When the necessity arose for improving the water-front between where the destructor stands and Oriental liay, the firm's slip was pulled up, and the firm went out of business. Later Mr. Clatworthy was employed by the Harbour Board. He leaves a widow and family. No announcement lias as yet been made with respect to an inquest. ACCIDENT TO TEAM CONDUCTOR. W. Turner, a tram conductor, who resides at 21 Koy Street, had the misfortune to foil off his car whilst it was traversing. Jervois Quuy shortly after ]() o'clock last night. When picked up he was found to be suffering from a flight concussion of the brain aiid « bud shaking, and was conveyed to t|,o liospilal. II i? not known how lie happened lo fall olf the ear. Jle is a married man, "Uemenibi'r von may meet with an accident.' any day. Rmembcr the Ocean Accident Corporation's Leader I'olicv com-, all accident* and SO dinoase*. Remember to take out a Policy To-day.—Advt.