NELSON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 791, 2 March 1853, Page 3

NELSON.

Shocking Accident. — It is out melancholy duty this week to record a fata) accident which hat occurred at Massacre Bay. It appears that on the Bth instant Mr. H. Eliot, a gentlemen Well known to most of oar fellow settlers, took his gan and went out for the purpose of pigeon shooting* At be did not return that evening or the following mornings his wife became alarmed^ and expressed her fears to a neighbour, Mr. J. Lovell, who, in company with Mr. Packard, immediately started out to look for the missing gentleman, bat re> turned in the evening without finding hint Th* search was continued on the (wo following days, in company with some Maories who had been engaged to assist, and at noon o© the 11th instant one of the party returned with the tidings that the dead body of Mr. fcliot had been found about two miles away from bis boose. It would teem that the deceased was climbing a rock, and bad left his gun resting against the base of the rock) and that while in the act of reaching down to lift the gun after him, it exploded, the content! shattering the brain, and causing instant death. A Court of enquiry was held yesterday at tht Commercial Hotel, Nelson, by the Coroner, when several witnesses were examined, and the following verdict was returbed : — " That Henry Eliot met with bis death from an accidental discharge of his gun." The .Coroner was requested by the jury to express their thanks to Mr. J. Lovell for his great and unwearied exertions in discovering the body, and bis unremitting endeavours in clearing up the facts of the melancholy case, and that great praise is due to him. — Nelson Examiner, January 29. During the past week the work of harvesting bat fairly commenced throughout the settlement. We hate never witnessed in any previous year such luxuriant crops of every kind At are now being gathered in, and the turnip and potato crops, yet to follow, hold forth tbe promise of equal abundance. This is particularly remarkable on the upper or light soils, and is attributable to th# thowery weather which we hare experienced during the whole of the present summer. The results of the present, and also of last season, have established the fact that much of the land in this settle* ment which had hitherto, from its gravelly character, not beeu deemed well fitted for a rotation of crops, is, in seasons like tbe last two at least, worthy of cultivation, and many sections which have previously beeu past by, are now eagerly sought for. We are not At all certain that a further experience of our climate may not prove that the weather of the last twenty-four months it as much to be expected as the drier seasons precediog them. It is to be desired, however, that tbe weather should become more settled than it has been for the last fortnight, or We fear that some damage will be sustained by the crops now ripe, before they are tecured, — Ibid, Feb. 5.