BUSHFELLING FATALITY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3342, 21 November 1919, Page 5

BUSHFELLING FATALITY.

' ‘(£R’ONER’S INQUEST. An inquest was held this morning by the Coroner, Mr J. P. Aldridge, inm the circumstances surrounding the death of Victor Francis Hughes, who lost his life as the result "of an accident at Mangaparua Valley on Tuesd-e_v last. Agnes Ruth Hughes said she was the wife of deceased, and lived with him on a bush section at Mangaparua. Valley. He was flailing the bush on ‘ his section for the contractor, Stephen Morris. ‘She tcdk afternoon tea to him about 2 p.m. on Tuesday, and was waiting to go home with him, and was ‘watching the trees falling. After the tree fell she heard ‘Morris call out to her husband, and, getting no reply, she suspected something was wrong. She tried to go to her husband, but was not allowed, but afterwards she ‘\ went down to him, but his head was covered, ‘and he was unconscious. Devceased was brought out to Ruatiti and from thence taken by the mail train to Taihape Hospital, and he died shortly after admission. Deceased enlisted ‘ in the 15th reinforcements, and re-‘ turned in February through wounds and sickness, Stephen ‘Morris said he was a bush non‘-tractor, residing at". Mangaparuia. settlement, and was felling bush by contract for deceased. On the morning of the 15th inst., he was ‘with deceased felling bush on the section, and was “driving,” and the driving tree went back, and, hitting another tree, knocked a limb ofi‘ which fell, striking deceased on the head. He shouted out ‘to-deceased, but, geTfting‘no answer, he went to see -what was wrong and found him Sitting across *3. log, -with his head hanging down. He was un-

conscious, and the branch which struckhim was lying about a foot away. The limb was three inches in diameter and about 16 feet long. With assistance the injured man was carried and taken on a stretcher to Raetihi junction, and f'r‘om ‘there he was taken to Olrakune, where Dr. Filtham attended him and ordered" his immediate removal to Taihape Hospital. Deceased was a fair bushman, ‘and was on Wages at £6 per Week. Witness had been-in the bush since he was 12 years Of. age, and had is lot of experience.’An accident of ‘this kind might have happened to the most experienced. bushman. Dr. Sinclair said deceased, died about twenty minutes after being admitted to the’ hospital. He made an. examination of deceased ’s injuiy, and found a largg lacerated wound” on the left side of the skull, With’ a fair] amount of crushed brain tissue around the edges. The cause of ihe death was hungrrhage inside the skull" resulting from the fracture. His injuries were so severe that he could not have been saved even by an immedia.te- operation. The Coroner found; flthhzt. decea-sad died from injuries received while felling bush on his section on‘November 131311. A _ i s”‘ The body of deceased was taken to Wellington for interment.