INQUEST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 546, 4 October 1872, Page 2

INQUEST.

An inquest was held on Friday last at Hawthorne’s Clyde Hotel, Clyde, before E. H. Carew, Esq., 11.M., the Coroner, on the body of a man (supposed to be that of Thomas Hutton,) who lost bis life by falling off Richard's punt on the Kawarau river, some two months since. The body was discovered by a man named Edward Harding on the Wednesday evening previous, lying across the stern rope of the dredge “ Clyde,’’ moored a short distance above Muttontown gully, who procured assistance and got the body ashore. The body was fully identified by the puntman, likewise by an apprentice of deceased’s, and by Mr. Janies Taylor, the employer, who stated his ago to be forty two. The following and only evidence as to the circumstances attending the drowning of the deceased was that of the puntman, which was to the following effect:— He had been in the deceased’s company for some hours previous, and was then proceeding to convey the deoeasodjacross the river, the deceased leading the way to the punt, witness following behind with a lantern. The night was a dark one. He saw deceased stumble and fall overboard. Ho never saw deceased again, but heard h : m as if attempting to swim The following verdict was returned—That the said Thomas Hutton on thej2sth day of September 1872 was found drowned and suffocated in a certain river called the CTutha near to Mutton Town Creek, and that the said Thomas Hutton became drowned and suffocated by falling into the Kawarau River from a certain punt, known as Richards’ Punt, when about to cross the said river on the night of the 7lh of July last, accidentally, casually, and by misfortune and not otherwise. The jiuy requested t e Coroner to add the following os a,Rider to the verdict.— The Jury consider that great cave’essness is shown by punt-owners in the management of punts, in not fixing up bars or closing gangways when not in use, in not having life-buoys on the punt ready for service, and also, in not providing proper li.-hts after night fall. And they express an opinion that it is urgently necessary that stringent regulations should be framed and enforced for tbo manigement and inspection of all punts.