INQUEST.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3589, 12 January 1883, Page 3

INQUEST.

An inquest was held at the Makatoku Hotel on Wednesday, before Dr. Reed, coroner, and a jury, of which Mr Parsons was chosen foreman, to enquire into the circumstances attending the death of August Petersen. It appeared from the evidence of Messrs R. Birch and W. Carroll that deceased, who had been working for the last six months on the Manga-te-Wainui bridge, was, on the 9th instant, in company with others, engaged in screwing the '' top cord ou a sixty-feet span of the bridge, preparatory to putting in an "undcrstint." At that" tune deceased was at a height of 85ft. from the ground, and was using a screwjack, which rested on a plank. The screw'jack slipped off the plank, and deceased, in trying to prevent its fall, overbalanced himself and fell to the ground. Dr. Denton, _f Norsewood, was immediately sent for, and in the meanwhile Petersen was attended to by his mates, but he only breathed for half an hour after the fall, and had been dead a short time when Dr. Denton arrived. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death. The decased man was a Swede, 25 years of age, and of temperate habits. He had a brother who resides at Makatoku.