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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 727, 2 April 1853, Page 2

Colonial Hospital.— lt is with regret which, for various reasons, is peculiar and strong, that we record the death of Rangilaurekareka, the Maori chief, the amputation of whose leg \vc mentioned in our paper of Saturday last. Notwithstanding the successful performance of the operation, and the fair promise for some lime afterwards of his steady and speedy restoration to health, he was attacked by diarrhoea, under which he sunk on Thursday morning. We had hoped that the favourable issue which at first there was every reason to anticipate in this case, would have exercised a very beneficial influence on the minds of the natives to whom it might become known ; and Rangitaurekareka, with his healed slump, his renovated constitution, and the tale he could have told of the wonders wrought by Chloroform, would have been for the remainder of bis life not merely an object of interest amongst his own people, but, to no inconsiderable extent, a missionary of civilization amongst them, impressing them with enlarged views of the resources of medical skill, and increased reliance on the care bestowed upon them in the public institutions established for their benefit. Now, however, not only are these expectations frustrated, but there is the risk that some of the Natives may come to opposite conclusions, as too frequently happens in similar cases —amongst the ignorant and prejudiced of European countries and races. This risk may, however, we trust, be in a great measure averted by a fair and full statement of the circumstances, by those who have means of communication with the natives to whom the knowledge of the occurrence may come. Such a statement would include the facts,— that the disease was of such a character and had made such progress that no other remedy than amputation could hold out any reasonable prospect of cure; —that Rangitanrekarcka himself was fully convinced of this, and not only willing but anxious that the operation should take place;—that it was performed in the presence, and, so far as it was necessary, with the assistance of nearly all the Medical Gentlemen in Auckland, who are, therefore, witnesses of the ability with which it was conducted;—that under the powerful influence of Chloroform, the patient endured no pain whatever during the removal of the limb, and, indeed, bad afterwards no recollection of having been conscious of the least suffer!ng, or of the process itself; and that, both in the operation and in the subsequent treatment of the case, the most unremitting attention was paid to him, —in short that, from first to last, everything that could be done for an European of rank and wealth, in a corresponding condition, was faithfully and vigilantly done here, and that the fatal result proceeded from a cause which it was impossible for the surgeons of the Hospital to foresee so as to guard effectively against it, or, when it had developed itself, to control with success. All this, we are fully satisfied, may be stated with confidence as the unexaggerated truth, and may be so presented to the natives as that the case, notwithstanding its unfortunate termination, may still impress them favourably rather than otherwise, on a review of the whole. It is because we feel no little for their own sake, they should receive and retain such an impression that wc express ourselves more fully upon ilie matter lhan we should have felt at all called upon to do had the patient not been a native, and otic, we believe, of some mark and consideration in his own tribe and district.

Couoneu’s Inquest. —On Wednesday last, an Inquest was held at the ‘‘ Mason’s Home,’' Official Bay, before Dr. Davies, Coroner, on the body of William Neil, a private in the 581h regiment, who bad been found lying dead on the beach that morning.. The facts, as brought out in the evidence, were substantially as follows; The deceased had only arrived hero about seven or eight weeks since, and, according to the character sent out with him from England, was addicted todrinking, having been .twice tried there by Court Martial and punished for drunkenness. Once since he came here, be was brought up for the same offence; and within I he last few days he bad been slightly punished (by. three days' drill and confinement to barracks) for being slovcnly on his post. On Tuesday night he was pul on sentry at the main gate of Britomart Barracks at eight o'clock, when he was perfectly sober. lie was seen on his post at a quarter before ten, hut at leu o'clock (the hour at which he was to be relieved) he was missing, and his fire-* lock was found in the sentry-box. About this time (he sentry at the Magazine challenged a man in the dreSs ol a soldier, whom he saw pass by his post, and go on towards the battery. Neil s absence having been reported to the sergeant ol the guard, a search was made all about the battery, (be barracks, and outhouses, etc., but no trace of him was found. On Wcdncsl,a>' morning, however, it was reported that a soldier was lying dead on the beach, atthobaseof the steepest part of Fort Britomart cliff, and a fatigue party was sent down, by whom the body was found on its face, without any mark of vio-, lencc or injury on the person or the clothes. The witnesses did not all form the same opinion as to I fie apparent stale of deceased's mind du-

ring Tuesday, some describing him as havin« been dull and depressed, others as having been at times laughing and talking in good spirits. These facts having been staled in the evidence of Colour-Sergeant Nunniugton, Private Hales Corporal Thompson, Private Gowler, Lieut, and Adjutant Balneavis, and Private Goodwin,—J) r Thomson, surgeon of the 58lh regiment, stated that he had made a post mortem examination and was satisfied that the immediate cause of death was drowning. There was no appearance of his having been wrestling, or having suffered violence. The body must have been some hours in the water. There was no smell of spirits from the stomach, or other sign of his having been drinking. The Jury, after a short consultation, returned as their verdict, “ Found Drowned.” Whether the fatal occurrence was accidental, or whether the unfortunate deceased meditated suicide (a point which the tenor of the evidence taken altogether left undetermined) it reminds many of the necessity that fencing or protection of some sort should be erected round the edge of the cliff from which the occurrence took place. This is not the first but the third life that has been lost there, and as the place is open to the public, and occasionally, as on Regatta days, thronged with people, including children, it j s evidently very desirable, both for the military and for civilians, that the necessity should not longer be overlooked. Indeed, we have heard it staled that official attention has been turned to the matter,—a report which we shall be glad to see verified.

The following paragraph from the Wellington Spectator , gives a sufficiently probable explanation of the mistake in which the rumour of the Hon. Dominick Daly’s appointment to New Zealand may have originated. Still, however, there is an error in the statement, as, on the Bth of October, the Gazette announced Mr. K. Baillis Hamilton's appointment to the Governorship of Newfoundland.

The following extract from the United Service Gazette of September 4(h, will serve to explain the origin of the rumour alluded to in our last number referring to Mr. Daly, who, it appears, has not been knighted, and who has been appointed Governor, not of New Zealand, but of Newfoundland :— “ D. Daly, Esq., has been appointed Governor of Newfoundland in succession to Colonel Sir Gaspard Le Marchant, removed to Nova Scotia as Licnl.-Governor.”