CORONER'S INQUEST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 228, 22 September 1873, Page 2

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An inquest was held this afternoon at the Ship Hotel, on the body of Klizabeth Smith, the wife of Captain Smith, of the b<ir que Annie Braginton. The jury having viewed the body, Dr Farrelle was called, who said : I was called about a quarter to seven this morning to see Mrs Smith on the Annie Bragiuton. I went down and found her dead From what I heard from her husband, she may have died from heart or brain disease, but there is nothing to point to foul play, and I believe she died from natural causes. Charles Smith: I am master of the barque Annie Braginton. The deceased was mv wife. She was 39 yesterday. She suffered a good deal during the voyage from England, complaining much of a pain in her chest. Since our arrival here she had improved considerably in health. Last night on going to bed she appeared in her usual health. About five this morning s he commenced coughing badly. She complained that she could not get the air into her lungs. She refused at fj.st to have a doctor sent for, but as she continued coughing I determined to do so. I sent the mate, and Mr Hanson ten minutes later A few minutes after I heard a peculiar sound in her throat, and knew at once it was all over with her. Her head was lying on my arm at the time. No further evidence was taken, and a verdict was at once returned to the effect that deceased had died :rom natural causes. We (Post) understand that a private sale of New Zealand Steam Shipping Company's shares was effected yesterday — one hundred shares being sold by Mr J. Martin, the purchaser being the Hon N. Edwards, and the price being £20 per share, an advance of 100 per cent on amount paid up. One at least of the Legislative Council is determined to show that he was not influenced in voting against the Provincial Loans Bill by any consideration of a property rate. The Hon Colonel Whitmore has given notice that he will move today: — " That with reference to the recent resolution of the Council, on the motion of the Hon Mr Sewell, this Council desires to record its opinion that it ia the duty of the Government to introduce, with the least possible delay,a bill- to provide for the great and increasing liability of the colony by means of a general system of taxation. the incidence of which should be equal on all classes of the community, and proportionate to Ihe means and profits of the several classes and industries of the colonial population." Parties going to Port Darwin frequently leave the Coast without taking formal leave of their creditors, who are left to bitterly mourn their credulity. On the last trip of the Albion a couple of men from the Blue Spur quietly took their departure and reached the Grey in safely. They then secured their passages, and were comfortably berthed on board the Albion, when, according to the West Coast limes, fo their intense disgust, they saw the faces of two creditors, accompanied by a bailiff, on the Waiparn, as she went to tender the Albion off Hokitika. The would-be absconders were immediately arrested and searched, when upon one there were found forty-two bright sovereigns, which he was made to disgorge, and as his mate had no money, this one had the pleasure of paying both debts. He then chose to return to the Blue Spur, rather than go to Melbourne without money. The creditors gave him £5, and he returned to his old quarters. A settler in Tauranga says that during the late wet weather, a bucket fifteen inches in depth, standing in his yard, was filled by rain in eighteen hours.o Vermont forgets all the hardships of the past winter in jubilation over its maple sugar season, and cheerfully asks, "what's the odds so long as its sappy." " The only aristocracy that can exist in a colony " was defined by the Hon. Dr Grace in the Legislative Council the other day to be an "aristocracy of learning, character and integrity, either universally admitted, or tested by lcng - continued exposure to the temptations of public life." " The other day," says the writer of the Anglo-Australian in London, "there came a telegram to the effect that the Bangalore bad sailed with £51,000 in sovereigns. Some one ventured to hiut that there was some mistake here, and on inquiry it turned out that the amount shipped was £511,000, besides £407,000 in bar gold. This was welcome news to the operators upon the Stock Exchange, as, in the then state of the money market, with money at 6 per cent, £900,000 would be no mean addition, to the circulating medium of the the country, and would help to ease the way to a lower rate of discount. As a matter of fact, it did so, for money is now at 5 per cent. Talk of the value of our colonies to the mother country after that !" It takes a smart man to conceal from others what he don't know.