ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5, 10 May 1913, Page 5

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

A SUDDEN DEATH

[Per Press Association.]

Dunedin, May 9

Mrs Jane Hardie, residing in Glen road, Mornington, died suddenly this afternoon, She had been attended by a doctor for the last five or six years. Indications go to show that death was the result of hemorrhage of the brain. FATAL EXPLOSION IN TUNNEL. Dunedin, May 9. While working at the north end of the Chain Kills tunnel, putting in gelignite plugs, one >of the employee-;-named Harry Smith received such injuries as proved almost instantly fatal. It appears that Smith was putting in the plugs, and another employee, named Charles Gardiner, was pushing them home, when from some unaccountable reason a premature explosion took place, Smith receiving the full force of the charge in his face. Gardiner was knocked about a hit in the arms and breast, while two others, named Barker and J. Hutchison, received minor injuries. The express from the south was stopped and all the ,men were brought into Dunedin. Gardiner is now lying in the hospital, but it is not thought that his injuries are very serious-. Barker and Hutchison, after being attended to, were able to. go home. Smith was a single man, and resided with his mother at Rockyside, Caversham. He was about 32 or 33 years old .

A PRISONER DROWNED

Invercargill, May 9

A prisoner named Frank Peterson, aged about twenty-five, was drowned in the Estuary this afternoon. He was working on the estuary, and in some unaccountable way fell into the water and was drowned in a few minutes ?r.e work was considered quite safe, and operations had been carried on there for over two years without an accident. Peterson was brought from from the North Island, and was serving a sentence of three years. The body has not yet been recovered.

Mystery surrounds the sudden disappearance of an unknown man, who is believed to have been drowned in the Ohinernuri River, near the Rangiora ferry, about seven miles below Paeroa, yesterday afternoon. A man, who appeared to he about 30 years of age, was noticed by the ferryman (Mr Dunlop) to be standing near tinriver bank, about 100 yards below the ferry. When next Mr Dunlop looked in the direction of the man he had disappeared, and his hat was floating in the river. A thorough search was mde, but no sign of the missing man was found. I T p to the present nobody has been reported missing from the district, and there is no clue as to the identity of the mysterious stranger.