Found Dead.

Manawatu Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 144, 28 November 1884, Page 2

Found Dead.

(Napier Telegraph.) A inquest was held on Monday evening at Makeretu [Makaretu] on the body of Richard John Clarridge [Claridge], who was discovered lying on the road dead on Monday. The evidence showed that a man named Bergusen [Bergersen], a Scandinavain [Scandinavian], was in the employ of the deceased up to the 20th inst. leaving on that day for Mr Ross' 2½ miles distant. The deceased told this man on the Thursday evening that be would go down to Ross' on the following morning for a steelyard to weigh his wool. No one saw the deceased, since that conversation until he was found dead. Finlay Morrison deposed that he saw a horse saddled; and with a broken bridle, which was recognised by Berguson [Bergersen] as belonging to deceased. Berguson [Bergersen] took the horse home on Sunday after dark ; not seeing the deceased he turned the animal into the paddock, and hung the saddle on the fence. The medical evidence showed that deceased fell on his head hence the bruise on the forehead, the neck was broken, and death must have been instantaneous. The deceased was unmarried, and lived alone, the nearest settler being Ramlose about 1½ mile away, and no one would; have passed where the body was found but Ramlose or his family. A verdict of accidental death was returned by the jury of whom Colonel Herrick was the foreman.