CASUALTIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 25

CASUALTIES.

A lad named Peter Smith met with a shocking fatal accident at Kumara Junction. He was jn the habit of riding to school, some bwo miles from his house. On the 14th the horse returned home, and a' search shonod that the boy had been thrown, and that his boot had caught in the stirrup, and he was dragged for a considerable distance along the read. He suffered shocking injuries, and only lived for 24 hours.

Mr Martin Henry Harrison (foreman at Mr J. J. Craig's etables) was run over by a vehicle at Parnell, Auckland, and w : as fatally injured. The wheel passed over his thigh, and Mr Harrison died on his way to the hospital William M'Ca-uley, a Katikati settler, whilst leading a horse attached to a dray was knocked down violently by the horse plunging and was killed instantaneously, his neck being broken. A marvellous escape from death occurred at the railway crossing in the centre of Ingle-wood on the 20th. A milk cart was being driven across the line, when a train caught the trap at the wheel. The driver was knocked out, and the horse and trap were carried half a chain, the horse being deposited at a ca.tt'e stop. The horse was able to walk home and the driver was uninjurpd. A lad named Langlev Pope, aged 15, son of the headmaster of St. Clair School, was received into the Dunedin Hospital on the 20th suffering __ from a lacerated knee as the result of a gun-shot wound. It. appears that Pope and a companion were at Highcliff, on the Peninsula, shooting, and during a spell Pope's companion, who was praieing the virtues of his gun, pulled it towards him to exhibit some special feature. The gun happened to be loaded, and the trigger caught in the grass, the charge being exploded and lodging in Pope's knee. The boy is making satisfactory progress. The body of an unknown manMvas found in Auckland Harbour on the 21st. It had evidently been in the water only a few hours. |

Mr S. R. Merrett, shops manager of the Ohristchurch Meat Company, was seriously injured on the 22nd in a collision between a motor car and a tramcar on the Lincoln road. It appears that he summoned Dr Diamond to attend his wife, who was in a critical condition, and both were proceeding to Mr Merrett's house in a motor car. "When near Clarence road a stray horse wandered across the Lincoln road, and the motor car, in attempting to pass round it, collided by some means or other with an electric tramcar. which was proceeding in the opposite direction. The motor car was completely wrecked, three of the wheels being torn off, and the occupants were thrown on to the road. Mr Merrett received a fractured skull, and was rendered unconscious, but Dr Diamond was only slightly injured. Mr Merrett was for some considerable time unconscious.

A man named Maokin, a visitor at the Lake House at Waikaremoajia, committed suicide on. the 24th liy cutting his throat. Mackin is said to be from Hastings. The death of Mr John Samuel Boon, one of the pioneers of the Manawatu district, is announced. Deceased trod on a rusty nail several days ago. On the 24th tetanus set in, death taking place at an early hour this morning.

Exclusive of lakes and rivers, Canada b&a 2.899,946 aquare miles of territory, «nd the United States 3,547,746 mile«.