INQUEST.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1700, 1 August 1879, Page 2

INQUEST.

Dr, Coward, the coroner, hi Id an inquest on Thursday afternoon, at the MitreHotel, Lyttelton, on the body of James Payne, quarryxnan, whose death while engaged blasting rock at the quarry, Diamond Harbor, was reported yesterday. Mr James B. Hill was chosen foreman of the jury, and the following evidence was taken :—J. A. Moutray deposed—l am a constable. I wont to Diamond Harbor on Wednesday afternoon. I found the body of the deceased lying dead on a ledge about half way up the quarry. The lower part of the body and legs were very much crushed. I took possession of the body and brought it to the morgue. Samuel Northey, sworn, said—l am a laborer, living in Lyttelton. X knew deceased. I was employed quarrying with him at Diamond Harbor. The accident occurred at 3 p.m. We were trying to get a block of stone down from near the top of the cliff. Several men were standing at the bottom; we were both standing near a ledge, and had been drilling a hole in the stone to blast it out. The deceased said to me, “ Hit the stone with a hammer ;we will break it cut.” He told me where (o hit it, cnl I did so. It was cracking, and X slopped. Payne said, “ Give me the hammer.” As soon as ho took it, he struck it two or t hree times. Then I scarcely had time to turn round when I heard it crack. I could see Payne trying to run away, but the block of stone intercepted my view a good deal. The stone followed deceased, and fell on him, killing him immediately. I had to pass him coming down the quarry, and I could just see his jaw move once or so. That was all. Deceased was directing the work. Was well acquainted with quarrying. Deceased was quite sober. He hadn’t drunk anything. I never saw him the worse for liquor in my life. I should think the stone that fell weighed ten tons. John Pearce corroborated the last witness’s evidence. A juryman asked the witness whether anyone was on the look-out, and, on being answered in the negative, said there should have been. The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental death.”