ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 84, 18 July 1910, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

TILE LARNACH SAUICIDE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. ■ Dunedin, Saturday. lAt the inquest oi Donald Larnaeh, evidence showed that deceased had two fits on the evening before he snot himself. The opinion was expressed by a friend that this caused him to be despondent. The verdict was that the cause of death was a bullet wound, self-inflicted. A PRISONER'S FATAL FALL. Napier, Last Night. An inquest was held on Saturday touching ,the death of Alexander Drysdale Matheson (whose name was previously given as Maddison). Deceased was a, ship's carpenter, aged 51, and single. His mother lives at Konini. For the past two months he had worked here off and on as a wharf laborer. He was arrested for drunkenness and suffered a fall whilst being removed from the watch-house to the lock-up, his spine being injured. He stated in the hospital that the constable had pressed his head forward. Constable Richard Ryan, who had charge of him, stated that Matheson had resisted, and that he slipped on a step, and they both fell together. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and held Constable Ryan blameless, adding a rider that the passage leading to where the accident occurred should be widened or another doorway provided.