INQUEST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1044, 21 April 1882, Page 3

INQUEST.

On Tuesday morning last an inquest was held before W. G. Rees, lisq., J. IV, Coroner, at Oliver’s Spear Grass Flat Hotel, on the body of a miner named jDavid Hallay who was found bur ed in his claim on the Sunday pterions. From the evidence adduced it appears that deceased was in miner’s parlance a “ hatter,” that is working by himself, and that on Sunday morning some children’s attention was directed to clothing lying on the bank of an open cutting in which deceased worked, and on approaching same they then saw the leg of a man protruding through some loose dirt in the bottom of the cutting. They at once gave the alarm and some near residents dug out the body which was stiff and cold and as if death had ensued many hours previously. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

On the afternoon of the inquest the body was conveyed to the Alexandra Cemetery and received Christian burial, a large number of the neighbours following. Deceased was over CO years of age, married, with a large family, the members of which, together with his wi e. live either n Liverpool or Glasgow, where several of his sons are either shipbuilders or carpenters. Deceased and a brother in the early days of the gold fields left home together ; but from want of good luck or other cause like many others in the colonies neglected to communicate with his family. The deceased’s brother some few years back died an inmate of the Dunstan District Hospital, and was buried in the Alexandra Cemetery.