People Australia

A Coroner's Inquest was held, on Wednesday last, at the Bricklayers' Arms, Market Street, on the body of a boy about 12 years of age, named Joseph Jennings Walker. The only witness examined was Master George Jilks, who deposed, that on Tuesday last he was playing in a yard behind the Cat and Bagpipes, which had been walled in for the purpose of forming a ball alley; the deceased, a son of Mr. Bourne [ie. Thomas Walker], and several other boys were playing with him. Without any previous warning, he saw the whole wall of one side (which was about 30 feet high and 35 feet long) falling in, he ran away, calling to the other boys to do the same; the deceased appeared paralised, for instead of running away he merely shrugged up his shoulders, and the wall fell upon him. All the other boys escaped, with the exception of Henry Bourne [ie. Joseph Walker], who was dreadfully injured. Mr. Surgeon Burke certified that the injury on the head of the deceased was sufficient to cause instantaneous death. One of the jury wished to go into an enquiry on the state of the wall, in order that a deodand might be levied, but the Coroner gave it as his opinion that no deodand would lie, as the wall was not a body in motion, and had no machinery attached to it, nor had any previous condemnation taken place. A person having, however, mentioned that the owner of the house had been warned that the wall was insecure some months before, the Coroner said that he would take time to consider whether a deodand would lie, and to obtain competent evidence of the state of the wall. The inquest was adjourned to this morning.