ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 5 April 1907, Page 2

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

LATEST. TELEGRAMS

Per Press Association. Dmicdiii, April I. The adjourned inquest touching til" death of (ieo. Francis Sandilands, con.eluded at the Coin!house, llalclutha. Nothing calculated to show the actual cause of the accident was elicited. I'.viilcncc from Kaitangata, ami (hat of Constable Marshall went to show licit Snndilnnds had spent the time while there on the fateful day in the house of a friend, and when the constable saw him leaving he appeared to be quiie sober. Kichard Cornish, licensee of the Stirling Hotel, deposed that .Sandilands had been four limes at. his house altogether on the day of the accident —once in the forenoon on v bicycle, and three limes in the afternoon, when out driving whli his wife and child, hut all (he drink he had obtained to witness' know - ledge was two glasses of beer, a bottle of draught beer' to drink on the road, and two bottles of bottled beer (which wrro Milis»(|iicnlly found intact ill the laiggv when lMied out of the river). The. verdi-L of the jury was that, ••deceased

met his death by drowning in the Hatha Hiver on Wodne: dav night, Until March, as the result „,- ,„,' lu -ciilent, by which the lior.se and trap were capsized into the liver at the dill's on the llasIriruiigli road, but there is no evidence, to slow bow the accident took place." A rider was added that the attention of the local authorities should be called to the dangerous state of the road, and the jury also look occasion to compliment Mrs. T. L...Morrison, the only witness of the occurrence, on her prompt action in going for assistance. Yesterday afternoon the body of Mrs. Saudilands was discovered washed up on the river bank near the Presbyterian Church at inchelutha. There was a great gash in the head. invcrcargill, April 4. At the inquest on Samuel Warnoclc, at which, the jury decided that death was due to alcoholic poisoning, a witness stated that deceased had taken some medicine. A medicine, bottle has now been found, and ail analysis of the contents will probably be made.

Napier, April 4. The inquest on the man, George Read, who died in the hospital on Tuesday, was concluded to-day. Evidence was adduced to show that he had gone to Hastings on Saturday evening, and had returned to Ngatarnwa early on Sunday morning in an intoxicated condition, and had commenced smashing the windows and furniture iu the whare occupied by a youth named Windus. Read struck Windus on the face with a broom, and also struck him with a table leg, with which Windus subsequently hit Read on the legs. A scull'le then ensued, and, after a struggle, both fell together, Read underneath. Windus then hit Read two or three times on the face with his hands, and Read went away, returning later on with a pole, with which he struck Windus on the head, stunning him, but other station hands coming on the scene took Read awa,y, and so prevented Read from further assaulting Windus. Windus slated in his evidence that there had been no quarrel between Head ami himself. Read was about the station oil Sunday and -Monday, but did not complain of feeling unwed, and only said that his eye was sore. On being driven to Hastings on Mondiy afternoon, he said he must have been given some very bad liquor at Hastings on the previous Saturday to make him behave as he had done. Windus' evidence as to the row was corroborated by two of the station hands. The jmy returned a verdict that death was due lo fracture of the skull, but that there was no evidence to show how the injury was caused. Wellington, April 4. At the inquest to-day concerning the death of Daniel McKay, late cook of the scow Rangi, whose body was found in the harbor, a verdict wf found drowned was returned.