CORONER'S INQUESTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 171, 20 March 1847, Page 3

CORONER'S INQUESTS.

An Inquest was held on March 17, before J. Fitzgerald, Esq., M.D., Coroner, and a respectable jury, at the house of William Trotter, valley ol the Hutt, on view of the body of William Cooke, who was found drowned in a part of the Okoutu or second river. The evidence only went to prove that the deceased on the 1 Oth March left his father's place in a canoe, alone, to go to Mr. Bruce's, a distance of about one mile by water; as he did not return the same night, h : s brother and Mr. Trotter's son went out the next morning to look for him ; they found the canoe and his cap, but did not find the deceased ; on the 14th March the body was found by Charles Hales and William Corbet close to where the canoe was found. The river near that place was very deep, and it was supposed that the deceased fell over from the canoe, and not being able to swim was drowned; The jury returned a verdict of " Found Drowned," but before separating signed the i following paper, expressive of their thanks to Capt. O'Connell, Csth regt., and the men under his command :—: — t " The jury assembled at the Inquest on the body of William Cooke cannot separate without expressing their thanks to Capt. O'Connell, of the 65th regt., and the men stationed at the Hutt, for their exertions in endeavouring to find the body of the deceased. (Signed) William Trotter, Foreman of the jury."

On March 19, an Inquest was held hefore J. Fitzgerald, Esq., M.D., Coroner, and a respectable jury, on view of the body of Henry Briggs, a private in the 65th regt., who shot himself on the morning of the 17th March. It appeared from the evidence of Dr. Galbraith that deceased had been laboring under melancholy for some time past ; he tied his braces to the trigger of the musket, and in that way inflicted a gun shot wound extending from the angle of the mouth on the left side to the top of the ear, fracturing the bones ; he was taken to the military hospital, where everything was done for him which skill and attention could effect, but from the nature of the wound it was impossible for him to recover. Verdict — " Deceased destroyed himself, being at the time of unsound mind."