INQUEST.

Evening Star, Issue 3382, 22 December 1873, Page 2

INQUEST.

An inquest was held at the Hospital to day, before Mr Houkeu, Coroner, ou the body of ihomas Beamish, fouud drowned in the harbor yesterday. Arthur kHit*, laborer, stated that he had known nothing of deceased before working with him for about hnlf-au hour on the day of his decease, Tuesday last, and therefore could not ideiitify tfye boijy. Un that day they were working together ou the Stuart street jetty, discharging palings from the lighter Queen. Tlie weather was very boisterous, and the wind blew some of the palings jntp the Biy. Witness and deceased jumped into the lighter’s dingy to recover them, witness ta ting the oar and sculling, while deceas'd picked up the palings. When clear of the wharf the wind bad such power over the boat that they could not return to the lighter, but drifted stern first along the training wall, out into the middle of the bay. The boat then half tilled with water, and her head was turned to Anderson’s Bay. Witness asked deceased to take the oar while he took off his boots, but got no answer, deceased sitting still, apparently frightened. Witness drew the oar in and took off his boots, and the boat just then shipped more water and capsized, witness going under water. When he came up ho saw the oar and swam to it, seeing deceased sitting on tb« boat, which was bottom upwards and about six yards away. Did not speak to him, but thinking there was not room for two on riie boat, commenced to swim to the other side of the Hay, with the help of the oar. Aft r going some distance, and getting nearly exhausted, ho saw the boat drifting behind him, but deceased was not on it and nothing was to be seen of him. Witness then got on the boat, j which turned over three different times with him, thelast time settling about a fool under water, but right way up, and witness then sat in it, holding on to the two sides, until it drifted on to the rooks at the. other side of the Bay. There was nothing iu the boat ivith which to bail the water out. Deceased was perfectly sober at the time,

Henry Strong, butcher, said that yesterday afternoon he and John .Veitch. were bringing in cattle by the Portobello beach road, and when opposite Black Jack’s Point, saw something beating against the rocks. Dismounted, and threw the lash of his stockwhip round what proved to be the neck of deceased, and then finding it was a man’s body, for Lar of separating the head, lifted it in by the clothes Informed the police, and the body was taken to town. Archibald M‘Lauchlan, police constable stationed at AnderaonV Bay, said that at ten minutes to six yesterday the last witness and Veitch informed him of their finding the body. Uu asking them to go with him to it they said they could not leave the cattle, and went to town. Witness found deceased’s belt unloosed and his trousers pocket out. The~e was nothing in any of kis clothes’ pockets. Witness then went for a dray and took the body to the morgue at the Hospital. it was much disfigured about the head. Hugh Delaney, mariner, in charge of the lighter, and George Carter, cabdriver, identified deceased as Thomas Beamish, stating that they had known him for some years He used to drive cattle from Canterbury to the West Coast for a Mr Greig, and aiterwarda on his own account and with a partner named Grant, Witnesses thought deceased came from Ireland, and was from thirty to thirty-two years of age.

The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental Death.”