ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 87, 3 April 1914, Page 2

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES.

A FARMER'S 1 SUICIDE. ! 1 [Per Phess Association.] ChristcKurchj April 2. Robert James Gilchrist, a wellknown fanner, living at Bexley, committed suicide last evening by shooting himself. Gilchrist was about sixty years of age, and unmarried. He lived alone on his farm. ' The body was found in some manuka scrub on a distant part of the farm with a gunshot wound in tho head and a gun lying besido it. WELLINGTON INQUESTS. ————— Wellington, April 2. Inquests were held to-day. concerning the death of Thomas Caldwell, killed, by tho breaking: of a cargo sling on the steamer Maitai, and James Borland, found dead on -the railway line near Ngahauranga on Tuesday. In the first case a verdict of accidental death was returned, and in the case of Borland the Coroner found ho died as a result of a fall from a train, no blame being attachable to anyone. PAINTER'S SUDDEN DEATH. Auckland, April 2. The dead body of George Montague a middle-aged painter, was found lying face downwards in a pool of blood in a back lane off Fort Street last night. His nose was broken, his face cut, and there was no money in the pockets, which were turned inside out. At first, a theory of murder and robbing was entertained, but since it has been discovered that the man was given to intemperance. The police are inclined to think that he fell down when suffering from a seizure of some kind and injured his face*. AN INFANT STRANGLED. Auckland, April 3. An inquest on the body of a newlyborn infant, which was found in a dress-basket floating in the harbor on March 20th with a cord tied tightly round the child's neck, was held today. The police had no new evidence. Tho medical evidence showed that tho tape had been drawn tightly round the infant's neck, leaving- a deep groove in tho flesh. Death was undoubtedly due to direct strangulation. Tho Coroner returned a verdict of wilful murder by some person or persons unknown. SEPTUAGENARIAN'S SUICIDE. Carterton, April 3. An old man named Charles Francis, aged 7'2, a well-known resident of Featherston, was found dead hanging from a beam at the Coronation baths. I Deceased had been despondent for some days past, but seemed better hist night. He was well known in j the Hutt district.