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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 936, 6 February 1871, Page 3

An inquest of more than ordinary interest took place recently at Devil's Kiver, Victoria, on the body of a groom, named Lawrence Bourke, aged 27. The medical testimony was to the effect that death was caused by infiaination of the bowels, aggravated by the use of chlorodyne, and that delirium tremens, from which he had also suffered, was caused by the same drug. From other evidence it appeared that the deceased had been in the habit of taking large doses of chlorodyne. In summing up, the Coroner described chlorodyne as " a deadly drug, which paralysed the brain, and like the use of opium, after being commenced, was increased uutil madness was produced." He believed many cases of delirum attributed to ordinary intoxicating beverages arose from the use of chlorodyne. It would appear that the appreciation of "the beautiful''' is not confined to the higher orders of creation, by the following paragraph, communicated to the Wellington Advertiser; —"Last Sunday 1 was sitting under a hedge in my garden about 9 feet high, and hearing a rustling I saw a full grown rat deliberately climbing up the hedge. I sat still, wondering what he wanted there. He made his way up to the very top, where there was a bunch of full blown roses, and after carefully surveying them, chose one of the largest, which he bit off, leaving the stalk about two inches long ; this he put in his mouth as a man would a short pipe, and, carefully avoiding crushing it, he came down again. Arrived at the bottom, he stopped and looked at rae, and then quietly took his way into the thick part of the hedge, taking his flower with him."

The Canterbury Pres 3 says:—A sad accident, resulting in one young woman, a Mrs Williams, losing her life, and that of another being seriously imperilled, happened at Sumner on the 15th January. It appears that a party of some twelve or thirteen persoas, amongst whom were Mr and Mrs Williams, Mr and Mrs Heath, Miss Pierce, and others, went on a pleasure excursion to Sumner. Shortly iil'tor arrival the females of the party

went into the sea to the eastward of the Cave Eock to -bathe. At this part of the beach the sea makes a bend inwards, forming a kind of a semi-circular bay, and the consequence of this peculiar formation of the land is the existence of several dangerous undercurrents, Mrs Williams, who it appears was a good swimmer, being Confident in her own powers, went further out than the rest of the party, and was carried out to sea, notwithstanding that Miss Pierce and Mrs Heath made every effort to save her. The former young woman, venturing out of her depth, would have been drowned, had not a man from a craft lying in close proximity jumped overboard and rescued her much exausted. Mrs Williams, however, was past hope of saving, and shortly after wads the body was thrown upon the beach by the breakers, at a point further up. The body was at once conveyed to the Sumner-Hotel, but life was extinct, and it was then removed to Christchurch,for the purpose of an inquest. Had it not ken for the promptness displayed by the man on board the craft, there is no doubt but that Miss Pierce would also have shared the same fate.