ACCIDENTS, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE, F.TC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1559, 21 September 1886, Page 1

ACCIDENTS, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE, F.TC.

A lerioui tocident occurred at Invercargill on faturday evening at the railway crossing, Canon afreet ’ A man named Tbomaa Pat* tenon,-a market gardener at Appleby, was driving bia dray homeward, and was coming along Tyne'street. P,.tterson was sitting in the bottom of the dray with hie back to the train, and a strong wind wat blowing in his face. He did not appear bo boar the whittle till the horse had orbited the line, and then in confusion ho jumped .up, caught the reins, and brought the horse momentarily to a stand. The consequence was/ that the cow-catcher struck the wheel of the drty, ■napping the axle short off. Patterson, with several bags of feeding stuff, was tSr own clear into Cross street about fifteen yards off, 1 The dray was pushed aside by the engine, while the horse was thrown with hia feet under the carriages, receiving such-injuries that be had to be killed, Patterson was picked .up insensible, evidently much hurt, and vsi taken by train to the hospital. He is injured in* temally, has several riba broken, and is in a precarious sta'e. No blame can be attached to the engine driver, as the alarm whistle wag heard all over the town.

A six year old child named Larkin, [whilst attempting (o cross a street in front of a tram oar at Oaveraham, Dunedin, on Saturday was knock' d down'by the hones and the front wheel paseed over the legend arm before the car was. pul led up. The child died omfiaturday. The driver appears not to be blameablo. Philip Walker, shoemaker, a mnoh-reipcoted cit izen of .Maori Creek, Grey mouth,. at* tempted suicide on Saturday morning. A shot was heard at four o'clock, and on going into his residence at about ten, he wasfound on the bed bleeding profusely. The lower part of hie It gs was much torn and stripped of flesh, and ho bad a wound in hie throat made with a shoemaker’s knife, -but he was still sensible. Ho pieced some dynamite in an earthenware fern pot, and knelt'on it while exploding He wee an amiable, in* lelligent man, but aubject to drinking. The reason he gives ii that he was tired of life, and was of no me to himself or any one else. Examination at the hospital shows; that he has three wounds in the throat.made with a shoemaker’s knife, one of which went through the windpipe. He baa. also three Stabs in the chest, and one in the abdomen. His knees are also opened out by dynamite.