ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1236, 6 September 1884, Page 3

ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, ETC.

Lady Whitaker, wife of Sir F. Whitaker died in Auckland last Wednesday night. By a fire at the Industrial School at Caversham (Otago), the schoolroom, a detached building 80ft x 30fc, was destroyed, together with a workshop and tools. All tlie teaching apparatus, books, etc., were burnt. Edward Power, a well-known miner, was drowned in the Arrov/ river, Lake County (Otago), on Wednesday. Ha fell off a footbridge and though a moderate swimmer, the current was too strong, the rirer being swollen from recent rains. A telegram from New Plymouth states that the old chief Te Thua died on Tuesday at Mangaon at the age of eighty years He was not noted as a warrior, but owing to bis mental qualities exercised a com. siderable amount of influence, more especially north of parihaka, and even thereto was much respected. About three o’clock on Thursday morning Feather’s Hotel at Addington, bettor known as Hansmann’s Hotel, took fire and was burnt to the ground. The inmates were five in number—Mrs Hansmann, child, servant, ai d two boarders namely, a Jew hawker named W. Levitt, and a man named Smith, who works on the railway. All escaped but Levitt who was burnt to death. Nothing was saved but a little furniture.

Hans Christopher, who arrived in the rolony forty-one years ago, and was present at at the burning of Kororareka, died in Auckland on Wednesday night. A terrible fatality occurred near Woodville (Wellington), last Tuesday night, wherebv two women were drowned. Rain fell Monday and Tuesday nights in torrents, and as a result the Manawatn river rose with great rapidity. Mr H. McKenzie, the contractor for the Manawatn Railway and Traffic Bridge, four miles from Woodville, lived in a house on a raised piece of ground on the bank of the river. Shortly after midnight he found the house was surrounded by water, and a raft was made for the purpose of getting the people away from the house. Shortly after three o’clock the first attempt was made, the raft being occupied by Mrs McKenzie and her son, Mrs Peary and her husband, and a man named McMillan. When crossing, however, it struck a snag and capsized, all the occupants getting safely on board again, but the-steering pole was lost, and the raft swept into the surging current of the main stream, and again the raft struck a snag and capsized. The three men somehow got ashore, and were picked up nearly insensible, but the two women tvere drowned, and there seems little hope of ever recovering their bodies. Mrs McKenzie has been living in Dunedin, and only came to Woodville on Monday last. Mr McKenzie has lost a great quantity of timber, and some sinking machinery has been submerged.