INQUEST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 966, 5 January 1882, Page 2

INQUEST.

An inquiry into the, death of the ladAlfred George Bindonlwas held.yesterday at the Club Hotel, before Dr H, T. Spratt,; District Ooroner. A jury of 14 was empanelled, of which Mr A. Bish was appointed foi'eman.Aftei'viewing.tiie tody, the following evidence was takenV v R.H. Cbinchen deposed : .The deceased jvas a; nephew ;of. mine named- Alfred George jStiidotin ged abbiifl2 years. He had been staying with me fora few,weeks. Shortly after 2 o'clock on Tuesday, I went down to iriy-propertyj in Dixon's estate, and tobk'deceased'wilh me,;also a Bmall. 'axe, witli which I cut some' branches of trees, and then set fire to some stumps. A small tree was standing near, arid I began to cut it down. I looked round, afteroliopping a little while, to see if' the boy wasin a safe position, and told him to keep to. the,right, as the tree could' not fall in that direction. He did as I told him, and sat: on 1 a fallen toe, wliioli was a few yardß; away. from where I was working.' I cut .the tree the usual way, I was not sure in which direction it would, fall, but it could not fall in the direction in which the boy was sitting It fell iii the contrary direction. Had lie stayed where he bad been sitting, the butt of the .toe would have been .nearest to him, arid thatlay several yards from.the spot where he sat As soon as I saw the tree falling, I called in the ordinary way, " Lookout!" He started to run, then'hesitated as to which way to go, and then started again, and ran right across til# direction in which the tree was falling. He had nearly reached safety, when brie of the top branches struck him ori the head, and he

iell insensible: I ran to the spot, and then called to Mr Cox who was working at a fence some Me distance off, who came to my assistance. AMr Moss also came. Cox ran for the doctor. I thought at first that this boy was only stunned, till I saw that the brains were oozing out of his head. Dr Beard was on the spot in about three minutes, and he said there was no; possibility, of the boy lasting many hours. Several persons then gathered round, and the deceased was

placed on a stretcberand brought to 'my residence. He died about three, hours afterwards,

To Mr flapper: :Had the boy sat still he would have been aafe, as the tree fell in a contrary direction to where I told

him to stand. To Mr Olayaoh : The boy might have been flurried by ray calling out, hut I said " look out," in the visual manner, ,to put him on his guard. He might never have seen a tree felled in hia life before, Dr Beard deposed: I was called about half-past two on Tuesday by a man named Cox, who told me a tree had fallen on a

boy and killed him. I went at once, and found the boy lying on his back bleeding from the head. Upon examining him I found a punctured wound in the skull, with grey matter and blood exuding. Gave no hope.of the child's recovery, as he could not survive the injury. He was removed to Mr Chinchen's, and died in about. 2£ hours from the time of the accident. The wound was caused probably by a short spur on the tree, as usually there was no punctured wound when , a tree struck anyone. ' : The Coroner in sumtaing up said it was always best to make inquiry into the cause of such accidents in order to see how they happened, and if there was any blame attached to anyone. He thought it. would be always best tor children to keep out of the way when trees were being fallen. In the present instance lie did not think blame could be attached to anybody. • The jury then returned the following verdict

"That .the, deceased Alfred George

Bindon rant his death on Tuesday, Jan. 3rd, through being struck by a falling tree, and that no blame could be attached to anyone."