FATALITY ON A SCHOONER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2144, 29 July 1907, Page 3

FATALITY ON A SCHOONER.

AN INQUIRY OPENED. Press Association. DUNEDIN, last night

An inquiry in the circumstances surrounding the death on the 16th instant of Jas. Thomas Hughes, A. 8., on the schooner Waratah, was begun yesterday morning before Air. Graham, S.M. The schooner was bound for Dunedin from North and was encountering heavy weather when Hughes was washed overboard, her position then being sixty miles oast of Oamaru. Mr. Hanlon applied for an adjournment, saying ho had been advised by telegram to appear on behalf of Captain Running, and he could not cross-examine witnesses (if their evidence implicated the master in any way) in the absence of instructions. The Magistrate decided to take tho evidence available. The inquiry, he remarked, was held because the question had been raised as to whether sufficient precaution had been provided on the vessel to prevent men from falling overboard. The man . was supposed to have been in the galley at tho time. The weather door was shut and the lee door open. The sea wa3 supposed to have broken in on one side and Hughes rushed' out at the 100 door. The theory was that he was washed below the rail, and the

question was whether there was sufficient protection there. After evidence was called the inquiry was adjourned sine die so that Captain Running, who is out of town, might give evidence.