ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5172, 19 October 1877, Page 2

ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES.

A man named Compeigne died suddenly at Taupo on October 3rd. He had only recently received a legacy of several hundred pounds from a relative in England. A telegram was received by the Inspector of Police on October 3rd from Otaki, stating that a house caught fire the previous night, and that two Maoris, viz., a man named Hare Wirekake and a woman named Kararina Whawhe,.were burned to death.

A young man named Robert Graham whilst felling bush at Woodville recently received internal injuries by a tree falling upon him which have since resulted in his death.

Intelligence was received in town on October 3rd from Palmerston North that the bodies of Paul Christiensou Nissen and Jens Lund, two Scandinavians, who have been missing since the 25th July last, have been found in the Manawatu Elver. At an inquest on the bodies a verdict of “found drowned” was returned by the jury. Another case of suicide is reported from the Hutt. On the morning of Saturday, October 6, Fanny Mason, aged 21 years, daughter of Mr.

J. A. Mason, was found dead in her bed. Three empty bottles which had contained chlorodyne were found in the room, and also a drinking glass with some chlorodyne in the bottom of it. The deceased was at one time an inmate of the Lunatic Asylum, where her mother is a patient. An inquest was held on the Bth before Dr. Wilford, coroner, when a verdict of suicide whilst laboring under temporary insanity was returned. At the inquest on the woman burned at the Auckland asylum the evidence showed conclusively that the fire originated in her cell. She had taken some matches in presence of visitors in theafternoon,and search failed to diecoverthem. She had never been taken out of the cell. The jury returned a verdict, “ That Mary Ann Fortune met her death by burning in the cell at the Whan Lunatic Asylum, but how or by what means the fire originated there is no evidence to show.” The jury appended the following rider : —“ That the discipline carried out in the Auckland Asylum is of a most defective character, and that the Government are greatly to blame for insufficient appliances for extinguishing fire.” A melancholy and fatal accident occurred on Monday, October 1, by which a carter named David Hogan lost his life. The deceased, who was in charge of a horse and dray, had taken a load of coals from the Brunner Company’s yard to the Government Buildings on the reclaimed laud, and having delivered them was about to return, when something frightened the horse, which suddenly started off, and Hogan in some way got jammed between one of the shafts and_ a post. His chest was terribly crushed and bruised, and it was evident from the first that he was seriously, if not fatally, injured. He was taken up and removed to the Hospital; but death supervened shortly after. The deceased was a steady, ’ industrious man,about 28 years of age, and had been recently married. Dr. Henry attended the unfortunate man immediately after the accident, but gave no hopes of his surviving. The police at Hokitika h ive arrested Thomas Ryan, formerly police officer at Dunedin, on a charge of murdering Daniels, a miner whose body was found at Kumara recently. It is said that oil cumstantial evidence is very strong against Ryan, and the police are in possession of a great deal of information, which will probably come out at the inquest on Saturday. The prisoner is identical with a man who was acquitted, after two trials, at Dunedin in 1873, charged with shooting at Detective Farrell. The case is one likely to present remarkable surroundings. Daniels built a hut on the new rush, Ryan purchasing the ground over his head. Daniels was supposed to have moneylie was Farrell’s principal witness against Ryan in the Dunedin case. Ryan was the first to tell the police of Daniels being missing in March last. The skull of deceased was fearfully smashed, and the body has been fully identified by his wife. Ryan has been engaged driving an express in Kumara for the last six months. He had rented Daniels’ house to a tenant after deceased was missing. Ryan was brought up at the Police Court where the evidence taken was unimportant, except that of Dr. Atcheson, of Greymouth, who proved the skeleton to be that of a man. The prisoner reserved his defence, and was committed for trial at Hokitika in March, 1878. On the morning of the 10th a fire broke out in a house at the Lower Hutt in the occupation of two young men named Moloy and Lumsden, and owned by a settler at Horikiwi. How the fire originated is not known, but the building was consumed in a very short time. The men say that after they first perceived the place was on fire, they had barely time to save themselves and a few articles of clothing. Lumsden had his hair, neck, and hands burned before he got out of the place. Mr. Valentine, and some men in his employ, together with Mr. Family, Constable Stewart and others, rendered prompt assistance, and by their exertions the flames were prevented from spreading to the neighboring tenements occupied by Mrs. Pye aud Mr. Scrimshaw.

An inquest was held on October 4th at Mr. Petterd’s Hotel, Lower Hutt, before Dr. Wilford (coroner), and a jury, of whom Mr. J. A. Mackie was foreman, to inquire into the circumstances connected with the death of Daniel Cooley, who was found dead with his throat cut, apparently by his own hand, the previous morning. Police Constable Stewart deposed that he was sent for to go to deceased’s re idence on Wednesday morning, and found him with his throat cut and a razor stained with blood lying close beside him. Two of deceased’s children stated that at an early hour that morning they heard him get up and go out, and on their going into the woodshed to get some firewood, they found him dead. Evidence was adduced to show that deceased was not happy in his domestic relations. The coroner having briefly summed up, the jury returned a verdict that the deceased committed suicide whilst suffering from temporary insanity brought on by domestic trouble. The following telegrams have been received by the Inspector of Police from Constable Byru;—“ Grey town, Friday.—A robbery has been committed at Mr. Moore’s, Glenbourne, East Coast. Over £2O in money aud about £ll worth in value were stolen. The offender is supposed to be a brother-in-law of Joseph Hagg. rty. I am off to the Coast at once. A messenger came for me just now.—Greytown, Monday.—l have just returned from the Coast with the prisoner ; I found the money, and other property, with him.” At the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Monday, before Messrs. Smith and Moore, Justices of the Peace, Arthur Barnsley was brought before the Court on a charge of having, on the 26th May last, at Wellington, feloniously forged and uttered a telegraph money order for £lO, purporting to have been forwarded by James Mills, of Dunedin, to J. Wilson, of this city. The Inspector of Police stated that the prisoner had only arrived on Saturday by the Rotorua from Sydney, where he had been apprehended on warrant and brought over in custody. He (the Inspector) was not ready to proceed with the case that day, and asked for a remand for a period not exceeding a week, in order to produce the necessary evidence. He produced the depositions which had been taken. here aud forwarded to Sydney. The remand was granted, the magistrates in reply to the prisoner expressing their willingness to take bail for his appearance in two sureties of £250. An accident occurred at St. George’s Hall on Saturday night to Mr. Gerrard, who, as he was going through that part of the performance known as “ walking on the ceiling,” fell with considerable violence, and would have been precipitated directly on to the floor but for the fortunate circumstance that as he came down his shoulder was brought in contact with the piano, which broke the fall, and although Mi-. Gerrard did not come off “scot free”—for we are sorry to hear he was a good deal hurt, —he had a really wonderful escape from serious injury, if not loss of life. An inquest was held at the Thistle Hotel on Saturday, before Dr. Johnston, coroner, touching the death of George Henry Butler, a carpenter, aged thirty-five years. It appeared from the evidence adduced that Mr. Campion, for whom the deceased worked, aud with whom he lived in Pipitea-street, on going to call him at noon of Friday, found him lying dead in bed. He had been in failing health for some time past, and had been taking medicine, but was not under the care of any medical practitioner ; therefore, as is usual in such cases, it was deemed right that an inquest should be held, although there could be no reasonable doubt that the deceased died from natural causes, a verdict to which effect was returned by the jury. There was a bolt in Ingeatre-atreet at noon on Friday, which caused net a little excitement. A horse belonging to Mr. Colley, while being unharnessed from a dray, opposite the Panama Hotel, got frightened, and bolted up Ingeatre-atreet, and the dray coming into contact with two telegraph poles, seat them flying from their perpendicular. The horse became entangled in the telegraph wires, which put a stop to his career. Notwithstanding the violence of the collision with the posts, horse and dray remained uninjured. At about one o’clock on Saturday morning last an empty house at Wainuiomata, containing four rooms, and belonging to Mr. Robert Wyley, of Wainuiomata, caught fire, and there being a strong wind blowing at the time, it was quickly burned down. How the fire originated is unknown. The building was insured in the New Zealand Company for £BO.

A case of death from an overdose of chloral taken to produce sleep, is reported in the Lyttelton Timas of the 20th ult. The deceased was a man named Alexander Leith Gordon, He had been unwell and sleepless for .some time, and procured a bottle of Hunter's solution of chloral from the establishment of Messrs. Cook and Boss. His landlady administered a dose on Tuesday night ; but the deceased during the night drank the whole of the contents of the bottle. He appeared well early the following morning j but about halfpast 10 o’clock he was seen, as he was approaching the house where ha Jived, to fall on the footpath, struggling as if in a fit. Dr. Florence was called in, and the man was removed to the hospital, where he died shortly afterwards.