HAVELOCK.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 181, 14 December 1880, Page 3

HAVELOCK.

[From Our Own Correspondent.] As inquest was held in the Courthouse, Havelock, on Saturday, before W. E. Dive, Esq., J.E., and the following jurors:— Messrs Charles Houghton Mills (foreman), Moses Fear, William Price, Thomas Brown, William Corkhill, Daniel Davidson, Charles Pickering, Charles Bridge Jarvis, William Warner, William Elliott, Antonio Damiano Yanninni, Vincent Carey Venimore, James IJlineoe. and William Jerom, touching the death of Henry Chant. The following evidence was taken :

! John Had field Smith, sen., baker, deposed i About (3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 80, deceased’s son came to my place for bread: he ran towards the fence and said, “'There’s father off” I looked in the direction indicated and saw deceased setting his sail in the boat; I asked the hoy where bis father was going ? he said he was going to take a punt to Ivaituna. I saw him sail towards the mill wharf, and that’s the last I saw of him ; heard next morning that lie was missing. I did not see him on hoard the punt. William Doreen, hotel-keeper, stated : On Tuesday evening, November 30, about 7.30, I saw Chant on the punt with a sail set; he was then opposite the Oovernment wharf; the boat was lashed alongside ; I watched him for about two minutes, and then went inside the house : I could see deceased quite distinctly ; I knew he was punting. By the Foreman : I could not sec any one with deceased ; he w«s to my knowledge a temperate man ; I never saw him drink a glass of beer. The punt was on the flats : it was about half-tide, and was flowing ; it was blowing and raining hard : it blew harder afterwards. About dark the sail was up in the boat. Deceased was using the pole when I last saw him. Rees Evans, seaman, said : On Wednesday morning, December 1, Freeborn Parsons came to me and said Chant did not return home the previous night, Three of ns viz., Parsons, Frank Weston, and myself—went to the punt, and found deceased was not there. The punt was floating about: the anchor was up ; and there was no pole in the punt. We anchored the punt and then came ashore. Preston reported Chant as missing’to the police. By the Foreman :—I saw deceased in the punt the previous evening. I could have seen if anyone was with him. Tie was a good hand in a punt, but could not swim. He was a temperate man, Benjamin Davi«, laborer, living at Kaitnna, stated : —I was crossing the flat from the Government wharf about two p.m. on Friday, Dee. 10th, on my way home. I saw the body of a man near the Ivaituna channel. I went on to the mud. The tide was flowing. 1 drove in a stake and tethered the body to prevent the tide washing it away. T at once wont ashore and reported the finding of the body to Sergeant Hogan who, with Mr Corkhill, accompanied me back. We got the body and placed it in the shed where it now is. 1 could not identify it, as it was too much disfigured. I came down the channel the previous evening and did not see it. 1 believe it was only recently washed down, j

G. P. Hogan, Sergeant of Police, deposed : —I knew the deceased, Henry Chant, who was reported missing on Wednesday, December Ist and supposed to have been drowned. On the afternoon of Dec. 10th the last witness reported having seen a body on the flats. I went with him and W. Corkhill in a boat to the place indicated. We found the body to be that of Henry Chant. It was lying face downward and was tied to a stake by the heel. On placing the body in the boat 1 found the face much bruised. The body now lies in a shed on the beach and is the same which was viewed by the jury this morning. I found a silver watch (double-cased) on the deceased. I opened it and found the time quarter-past 0. Deceased’s boots were unlaced and when handling the body one came off. I at once recognised the body by the clothing and partially by the features. Mrs Chant has recognised the watch as having belonged to her late husband. Deceased’s face was much disfigured, being much battered and bruised. Blood flowed from the mouth when we turned the body over. The hands were clenched. His clothes were in order. I do not think deceasedjhad struggled with anyone.

Charles H. Cinnock, a duly qualified medical practitioner, deposed to having examined the body of deceased. The face he found very much bruised and evidently having come into contact with some hard substance, probably with a boat. There is no fracture of the skull or jaws, The boat passing over the face would be quite sufficient to produce the bruised appearance. The cause of death was drowning. I did not know deceased. There is nothing to show that he was struck by another party. The marks are consistent with something having passed over the face. He may have been stunned by falling over. The jury unanimously found the following verdict :—“ That the deceased, Henry Chant, on the 10th day of December, ISSO, was found drowned and suffocated in the harbor at Havelock, but how or by what means the said Henry Chant became drowned and suffocated no evidence did appear to the jurors.”