ACCIDENTS
George COOLEY was involved in two accidents resulting in loss of life in 1880. First he ran over and killed a child in the Hutt and a few days later was accidently drowned while duck shooting on Lake Wairarapa. Two boating/shooting companions were also drowned.
FATAL ACCIDENT IN JOHN STREET.
CHILD'S NECK BROKEN.
Shortly after 10 o'clock this morning information was conveyed to the police that a child named Emily Miller, between one and two years of age, had been killed in John-street by a cart passing over it. The circumstances under which the fatal accident happened are somewhat singular. It appears that about 10 o'clock George Cooloy, son of Isaac Cooley, gardener at the Lower Hutt, was driving a cart loaded with vegetables up John-street. He was going at a walking pace, and occupied the centre of the roadway. When he got near the end of the street he heard a woman shouting out, and saying that he had run over a child. He got down from the cart and went back, and found the child apparently dead, in the arms of a woman. Dr. Grace was sent for, and pronounced the neck of the child to have been broken. Death was instantaneous. Cooley states that he was sitting on the near side of the cart, and it must have been the off wheel that ran over the child. He did not see the little girl in the road, hear any cries, nor did he experience any shock from the wheel passing over her. The child's parents reside in John-street, near the scene of the accident. An inquest will be held at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning.
Source: Evening Post, 2 April 1880, Page 2.
INQUEST.
An inquest was held at the Hospital on Saturday morning, before Dr. Johnston and a jury of whom Mr. Thomas Bould was foreman, on the body of Emily Mallows, who was run over on the previous day, as described in our issue of Saturday. The mother of the child (who was fifteen months old) said that about ten o'clock in the morning she had put the child near the back door, and it had wandered out on to the road. A minute or two afterwards one of the other children ran in and said the baby had been run over. When she went out she found the child lying dead in the road. On Dr. Grace being called, he said that death must have been instantaneous. George Cooley, a farm labourer, living at the Lower Hutt, deposed that he was driving along John-street at a walking pace, and did not see the child nor know anything about it until it was run over. The coroner, in summing up, spoke of the carelessness of parents in allowing their children to wander about the streets. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, with the following rider: "This jury begs to impress upon the City Council the necessity of passing a by-law compelling all hawkers to walk by the side of their horses' heads while passing through narrow lanes." Mr. Cooley, who appeared to deeply regret the unfortunate accident, contributed the sum of £5 towards the funeral expenses.
Source: New Zealand Times, 5 April 1880, Page 2.
THREE MEN SUPPOSED DROWNED IN WAIRARAPA LAKE.
On Saturday afternoon we received intelligence that a sad accident was supposed to have happened on the Wairarapa Lake, by which the lives of three young men had been sacrificed. At the present time very meagre information has been received, but full particulars are hourly expected. Two of the three young men were Mr. Cross, jun., a son of the well-known settler of Cross' Creek, and George Cooley, son of Mr. Isaac Cooloy, vegetable grower, of the Lower Hutt, with their companion, whose name was Devereux. They are reported to have hired a boat on Friday for a day's duck shooting on the lake. The day was very squally, and, as is well known, the lake is very dangerous when exposed to the violent gusts from the southwest, the direction from which the wind came. It is thought that in one of these squalls the boat was upset, and that as none of the three could swim they were all drowned. On Saturday morning Mr. Cross and Constable Brunskill organised a search party, and started off with the object of recovering the bodies. It was reported this morning that the body of George Cooley was brought to his father's house yesterday morning. Word to that effort was received during Sunday by a brother of the deceased, who is living in Wellington, and he immediately left town for the Hutt. It is a singular fact that this George Cooley was the man who inadvertently caused the death of the little girl Emily Mallowes by running over her with his cart in John-street on the previous Friday. Up to the time of our going to press no definite information had been received, and a private telegram from Featherston states that no trustworthy intelligence at all had yet been gained beyond the single fact that the three men were missing, it being added that neither boat nor bodies had been found. Constable Brunskill returned from the lake late last night, and has reported to the Superintendent of Police that after searching all day with Mr. Cross and others for the missing men, they could find no signs of them or the boat, except a bag of ducks which had been washed ashore. Other search parties that were out have also returned, with no better success. The names of the missing men are Francis Cross, aged 19; George Cooley, aged 20; and Dovereux, aged 15.
Source: Evening Post, 12 April 1880, Page 2.
INQUEST.
An inquest was held yesterday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, before the Coroner, Dr Spratt, on the body of Edward Devereux who was drowned in the Lake on Thursday last.
Mr Wm. Candy was elected foreman of the Jury.
Mr F. V. Bockett, sworn, deposed: That he was working near his home on Thursday, the 8th inst, with another man and noticed a boat containing three men about a quarter of a mile from where he was working. He noticed that they were in distress and could not manage the boat, they were evidently being driven from the shore, they attempted to raise a sail of some sort but could not the wind was so strong. It was blowing, strong from the N.W. He watched them for some time till he lost sight of them. He did not think there was any danger. He went to tell Mr Cross that he saw them drifting across the Lake. He could not recognise the people in it, but he knew the boat. He knew that Mr Cross' son with Mr Devereaux, and Mr Cooley, were going out and were expected home. It was quite impossible for him to render any assistance where he first saw them, the water could not be more than six feet deep. It was a flat bottomed boat. It was more a punt than a boat. It was fourteen or fifteen feet long. He thought it safe enough in calm water. He did not think it would easily be capsized but it would be easily swamped. He lived about six miles from Mr Cross.
Mr Lot Cross, sworn, deposed: That his son, Henry Pranklyn Cross, with Edward Devereaux and George Cooley, went out in a punt on Sunday, the 4th inst. His son said he would be back about Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. He had not seen any of them since. On Thursday evening Mr Bockett came to his place and told him that he had seen them off the point about one or two hundred yards, they came up to the point with sails up, and a squall caught them and they lowered the sail, and all three took to pulling. The wind was too strong for them to make headway, they tried to hoist the sail but could not, after that they lost all management and appeared to drift before the wind. He (Mr Bockett) watched them till they were about two miles out. After that he lost sight of them it getting dark, he did not think there was any danger as they would probably reach the other shore. The boat was his (Cross') son's, it was 17 feet long 4 feet 4 inches broad and 16 inches deep, it would be quite safe in ordinary weather, he had gone round the Lake in it himself. There had been a heavy squall at his place at about 5 o'clock. It was the first time his son had gone ont in it on his own account. He understood from Cooley that he knew all about boating. No man could live in that sea swimming.
Henry Busche, sworn, deposed: That he had seen the young men on Tuesday, he never saw them after till he found the body of Devereaux on Thursday. He bad been with others looking for the missing men. He found the body at a point called "Land's End." There were two men with him at the time he found the body. It was lying half in and half out of the water. They brought the body to Featherston. Witness was employed on the Lake fishing for the last eleven months. He did not consider the punt was safe, there was no bilge. It was large enough, but the sides were too straight. He had told the man that built it that it was not fit for the Lake. The boat could carry a small sail but it required to be well managed. He did not think it safe to put up a sail or pull against the wind on that day.
The Coroner summed up the evidence and without farther discussion the Jury returned a verdict of 'Accidental death by drowning.'
Source: Wairarapa Standard, 17 April 1880, Page 2.
Funeral.
The body of poor Cross was found floating in the middle of the lake on Tuesday, and he, with Cooley, the other unfortunate young man, whose body had been found on the beach, were taken to their last resting place, the Featherston cemetery, on Wednesday, at 11.30. A large muster of inhabitants attended the funeral.
Source: Wairarapa Standard, 24 April 1880, Page 2.
Chris Korte's New Zealand Genealogy Project
1845 - 1880 (35 years)
Has no ancestors but one descendant in this family tree.
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