Accidents and Fatalities.

Hastings Standard, Issue 346, 12 June 1897, Page 2

Accidents and Fatalities.

[By Telegraph.]

(Pit Press Association.)

Auckland, This day

News has been received that Mr Molesworth, storekeeper, Whangaroa, was drowned on Thursday night in trying to cross the rive.'. His companion had a narrow escape. Molesworth leaves a wife and family.

"While sorye children were playing with an empty cart in Tinakori road, Wellington, on Wednesday last, one of them—a six-year old son of Constable M'Kiunon's—was run over and had his leg broken in three places. While hanging paper in a residence at Hunterville last Monday, Mr Gus Clement fell and broke his leg. He was taken to the Wanganui Hospital for treatment.

During the voyage of H.M.S. Royal Arthur from Sydney to Colombo a marine committed suicide by jumping overboard, and a stoker died in consequence of the excessive heat, and was buried at sea. A rather serious accident befell Mr Houston, M.H.R., the other day while out riding. He was thrown from his horse, and besides being greatly shaken he had two of his ribs broken. He is still confined to his bed.

At the inquest on the body of the lad Owen Doyle, who was killed at Levin on Sunday through the accidental discharge of the gun of his companion, Edward Travers, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, with a rider :—" That the Minister of Justice's attention be called to tbe 1

number of accidents created by boys carrying firearms, and the jury are of opinion that an Act should be passed to prohibit the carrying of guns by persons under a certain age, and that the Government be asked to impose a gun license fee. With reference to the death of Mr Shepherd, a clerk in the N.Z.L. and M. office, who was recently killed by a bicycle accident in Victoria, it appears that deceased rashly indulged in road racing over an unknown country. ITe had to negotiate a steep pinch leading down to a bridgf, and his machine bolting with was pitched the stone abutment with such dreadful force that the base of his skull was fractured, and several of his ribs were broken and driven in on his lungs. When he left home he jokingly told his boy—" If I don't come home, look for me in the hospital." To the hospital, true enough, he was taken, but there never was the remotest hope of saving his life. Deceased was a widower, with two children.