INQUEST.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 407, 30 August 1866, Page 2

INQUEST.

Ak inquest was held at the Clive Hotel, Clive, on Tuesday, 28th August, at 2 p.m., before Thomas Hitchings, Esq., Coroner, and a jury, on the body of John Fnichney. The following were the jury : —E. Jeffares, G. Peebles, 0. Claridge, J. Mackay (foreman,) W. Hague, John Hague, E. Brookes, Joel Massey, E. Gerrard, H. Hawkins, J. Luff, and F. Johnson. The Cohonee then briefly addressed the jury. He said that their duties were very simple: to hear the evidence so far as it could bo got, and return a verdict accordingly. The jury having viewed the body.— James Obr, being sworn, deposed :— I am a settler, residing at Clive, and nephew of deceased, on whose farm I worked. I have seen the body and identify it as that of my uncle. On Monday morning he left our house about 8 o’clock. He went away with a horse and cart, and said he was going to Caldwell’s on the opposite side of the river. He was not accompanied by any one. I wanted to go with him, but he told me to stop at home and dig holes for tome trees which he was going to bring from Caldwell’s. As far as I know he had only been across the river once before and then on horseback. When he came back on that occasion he told me he knew tho ford. I heard or saw nothing of him till a man came to the house and told me he was in the river. I and two men who were working for my uncle immediately started for tho river. Me met a man with a cart coming towards Clive, Deceased was in the cart. He was quite dead. There were no marks of violence on the body. Deceased was GO years of age, was in good health when he left the bouse ia iha morning.

Waltee Tuffs, bei ig sworn, deposed ; —l am a laborer residing at Clive, and am in the employ of Mr Pilcher. Between 9 and 10 o’clock on Mondav morning, I was out in the fields harrowing, when 1 heard a cooee from the direction of the river, and saw a horse, (in a cart) plunging in the water. I rushed into the river, and with some difficulty released the horse by cutting the harness. I saw no sign of any human being near the place. I took the horse to Mr Pilcher’s house. On the road I met a Maori named Arawi, to whom I related what I had seen and done. He suggested we should get a canoe and go on the river to search for the body of the driver of the cart. We accordingly did so. About a dozen yards from where the cart was, we saw the body of a man at the bottom of the river. The water where the body lay, was about 12 or 13 feet deep. We got the body out by filing a canoe pole in the coat of deceased. Life was quite extinct. We saw no marks of violence. We put the body in a cart, and brought it on to Clive. There is no regular ford at the place where deceased attempted to cross. We could see the wheel tracks down the river bank. About an hour elapsed from the time I heard the cooee to my meeting Arawi. By the foreman.—l do not think the horse could have lived many seconds longer if I had not released him. By a juryman,—Only a few minutes elapsed from the time I heard the cooee till the horse was released. Aeawi, a native, being sworn, deposed:—l reside at Mataihiwi. I have seen the body of deceased. In consequence of information received, I went with a white man (Tuffs) on the river to search for a body. We found one in the river. This was about 12 or 1 o'clock. The body was perfectly cold. I did not see any person with a horse and cart going towards the river that morning. This being the whole of the evidence.—The Coeokee said that the evidence, though meagre, was ha thought very conclusive. It was simply that deceased had left his house that morning, in good health, with a horse and cart; that he had attempted to cross the river at a place where there was no regular ford—(a very foolish thing, he might remark, and all who attempted which would sooner or later come to grief);—and that in the attempt he had lost his life. The jury ho thought, had nothing to do but to return a verdict to the effect that deceased came to his untimely end by pure accident. It was not, however, for him to say what verdict they should bring in. The jury, without retiring, brought in a verdict of “ Accidentally drowned.”