INQUESTS

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2389, 29 November 1881, Page 3

INQUESTS

An inquest was held yesterday afternoon, at the Magistrate’s Oouxt, Kaiapoi, before 0. Whitefoord, Esq., coroner, and a jury, of which Mr J. Lowthian Wilson was foreman, touching the death of Charles B, Oockburn, who was found dead on Saturday, near the Maori cemetery. A juryman not in attendance was fined 20s, but subsequently it was remitted. J. Layton Smith, shipping clerk, Lyttelton, identified the body as that of 0. E, Oockburn, a second mate, single, about twenty-three years of ago. Had known deceased four months. He was discharged two weeks ago from the Examiner, at Timaru. He was temperate, in good health, rather quick in temper, and sensitive. His manner was nit desponding. Did not know if deceased owned a revolver. —W. Pattman, landlord Pier Hotel, stated that deceased came to the hotel on the 21st, had tea in the evening, a glass of rum, and went to bed at ten. He intended returning to Christchurch by the morning train, but laid till nine, when he was called, and had breakfast about ten. Ho walked down the town, and subsequently had a glass of beer and asked if there was any bush about. Witness told him it was a nice walk to the Maori pah, and the last he saw of deceased was going in that direction, after he had said he would return for tea and go away by 630 p.m. train. On Monday deceased seemed desponding, but not so on Tuesday. He had no watch, and very little money, and no parcel.—J. Bioxam and J. Trumper, lads about fourteen years, gave evidence of finding the body near some broom on the sand, and telling the police. Tho body was on its left side, the left arm under and tho right resting on the side. Bioxam said his motherboard three shots on Tuesday last. They found no firearms, though search had been made.—Sergeant Gilbert gave corroborative evidence of the deceased’s position, adding that the face was in the sand, and a quantity of blood from a wound in the head had flowed out. In the left hand coat pocket was a cartridge box, containing thirty-five No. 7 pinfire revolver cartridges, in the other were handkerchiefs. He found 6Jd in money. The hat was at the feet. The pockets did not seem to have been touched. Every search had been made for a revolver without success. —D.-. Downes, duly qualified medical practitioner, said he had made a post mortem examination of the body, which was that of a young man well nourished. There wore no marks of violence except a small wound in the right temple of the forehead. Removing tho scalp there was a hole in tho skull, and he traced the direction the bullet produced in a downward and backward direction to tho opposite side of the head. The wound would cause ileath almost instantly. It did not seem a natural ocurae for a self-in-flicted wound. The body had been dead at least a week.—W. H. E. Pinching deposed that be had weighed the bullet extracted with one of those in the cartridges, and the difference in weight was about two grains. The bullet in passing through the skull would reasonably lose that weight.—The Coroner referred to tho absence of the weapon which a suicide might have suggested, and the evidence that the wound was different somewhat from one self-inflicted. The circumstances of tho finding, the position of the body, and that it had been apparently untouched, he thought showed death had been self-inflicted, but the jury might also find a verdict that death resulted from a gunshot wound, of which there wes no evidence to show how caused.—Tho jury returned an open verdict. The Coroner promised, in reply to the foreman, to represent the necessity for ventilating tho morgue. The adjourned inquest on the body of the infant found in the River Avon by a boating party on November 12th was concluded yesterday at the Clarendon Hotel, Dr. Prankish, one of the coroners of the colony, presiding. Tho only further evidence adduced was that of Detective T. Neil, who deposed having proceeded to the spot where the body was found, its subsequent removal to the morgue, and tho fact that ia the dross piece wrapped around it five large boulders were enclosed. His endeavors to discover its parents had hitherto proved unsuccessful.— The Coroner read over the evidence previously given by Dr. Byrnes, subsequent to the postmortem, to tho effect that although decomposition prevented an accurate description, there was no doubt that the child had breathed, and lived, say, for a month or so. Tho question they had to consider was, had the child been drowned, or was it deposited in the river subsequent to death. After a short deliberation, the jury returned a verdict to tho effect—“ That deceased was found dead in tho river, and that there was no evidence to show that it was alive when put in the river.”