CORONER'S INQUEST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 249, 16 October 1873, Page 2

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An inquest was held at the Hospital yesterday before Dr Squires, the coroner, and a jury, on tho body of Frederick Wearing, who was accidentally killed on Tuesday. The following evidence was taken : — William Burke, seaman on board the schooner Waihopai, said that the deceased was chief officer of ihe Wsiihopai, the property of Mr J. Cross, jun. About II o'clock on Tuesday I was in ihe hold. George Trail slung a basket of coals holding about l^cwt. on the rope sling. The word was given by Trail "Heave up," and the first thing I knew after it got out of our sight was seeing the mate fall with the right side of the back of his head on the combing of the hatch, I said to Trail, "He is killed." When I got up to him he was nod breathing. His body was ia the hold on the coals, and his head resting on the combing. I tried to pour come water down his throat. I cannot say if he swallowed any. Blood snd crater came out of his mouth afterwards. I then helped to cf>rry him ashore, and put him into a trap io take him to the Hospital. The halyards giving way, was, I consider, the cause of the accident. When we commenced working I considered that (he jib halyard was not safe, but did not like to tell the mate, Mr Wearing, that it was not so, as he would have told riie 1 was interfering. He bent the rope himself that morning. James Ford, laborer: I wag working at the Commercial Wharf oa Tuesday. DeCeased was on a plank reaching from the wharf on to the boom which had been rigged over the main hatch. While they were heaving up a basket of coal the span gave way, and the part he was holding on by came against the plank, driving the end of it along the boom. It knocked him off his feet and he fell backwards, still holding on by the rope, but there was too much slack for him to recover himself, so he fell on the right side of the back of his head on the combings of the hatch. After striking he lay backwards into the hold. Leonard George Boor, hospital surgeon: Deceased was brought to tho hospital on ■ Tuesday afternoon. I saw him half an j hour afterwards. He was then quite insensible and dying. He had a bruise behind the right ear, but no wound. He died half an hour later. I made a post mortem examination or the body. Immediately under the bruise I found a starred fracture of the bone extending across ihe base of the skull, nnd a large quantity of blood between the braia and ' its membranes. The brain was bruised | opposite the site of the fracture, bat much | more so on the other, or left, side. For (he space of two inches square the brain was quite softened. The effusion of blood : owing to the fracture was the cause of death, Luke Nattr/w, custodian of ihe Nelson Institute: Having heard of the accident, I went to see the rope. I found it to be ] made of New Zealand flax, manufactured from the leaf by machinery only. Flax rope made simply by machinery is not so serviceable or durable as if made in the way hemp or flax is prepared for the spinner in Europe. The flax prepared solely by machinery will not take tar well, and if it has been soaked several times by water you can squeeze a great part of the tar out. Flax prepared by machinery is more liable to give way and break than that; prepared like hemp in Europe. This concluded the evidence, and a verdict of accidental death was returned.