THE SEVERED HAND.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1645, 28 December 1885, Page 2

THE SEVERED HA ND.

«. AN INSURANCE ROMANCE. (Wellington Post) On Thursday last the telegraph informed us that on the preceding day a Mr Godfrey, while walkingon the beach near Snmncr, a Canterbury watering j.lr.ce, picked up a dead man's hand with some inches of arm attached. It was a left hand, and was not at all decomposed, and appeared to havß i been sn;s*Vi><?{'. or hroken fro ; n the i brdy. Yesterday we were further j informed that a ring on the hand had i hecn idenMSetl p^ having belonged to Arthur Howavde, suppowf? to be drowned there on ll'h October, and ih at his life was insured for £2400. Herein lie all the necessary element* for a sensational novel or play The circumstances attending the supposed drowning of Arthur Howarde arc <y'\\en as fc>ii<>v. T $ in the Canterbury papers of flip period : — A fri.'iu! statori tiiafc Howarde wns ca'itioved nob tn bathe l>y a relative of Mr. Pay's, who keeps an betel at Snmcer n't wl.icli i he wont to have a class of Leer en tlif Saturday afternoon. Ho varde Xlien I said lie was troing to have a dip, and the lady of the house camioned liitn ol ' the danger. After having the hotel, he fonvei'fced with A?hton, who keep? a gii g-rl»eer stall, raul told him h-, would have time to have a dip, am 1 stili cute!) the G o'clook coach. This was about 4 or 4 15 p.m., Froiv ' there Howardfi took a bee-line for tilt bathing place, and was seen by tht Uofly of woi'kmcn them walking a' oui Rinovgpt the rocks, evidently not Sirtving vet mane up his mind to go iutc water. Some of the ni^n stated tlsai jat liP.lf past i the sea was w.isl ,n»f 1 over the l«;-fiikwater, n\n\ was ver;. ■ rough. Nextday, »:«? believe, If v>warde'« clothes wore tliscMvered on the roek<*. and a reward of £50 wris offered without success lw t!se recovery oi his body. Howarde was a married " man, ea miner, it is paid, sometl.ins 1 less than £250 a year, but he had also some little property. He had insured his life in t'uo Government Association for £1000. a similar sum j in tlif Mvitnal Provident, and effected a policy of £400 with one of the accident insurance companies, so that ' it' he was drowned, these bodies stand to lo«e £240i>. The evidence of thf ' fatality, however, has not been sufficiently conclusive to induce these institutions to pay tlt«J £2400 to Howarde's snp»»ostd heirs, Rumours are current that on the same evening, but at a subsequent hour to that at which he must have been drowned, if drowned at all, he was seen | proceeding from Sunnier towards i Ly Helton, and also that his clothes ' were, not, an hour or two after the assumed fatality, in the place where tin y were subsequently fan' d. Of course, these may l>e all base!es3 rniDOurs, l>ut the. fact remains that the insurance companies have not paid. Now comes the discovery of the human hand bearing a ring identified as Howarde's. Surely that would b*accepted as absolute evidence that he was drowned, that ft shark consumed tho body, but, not wishing to swallow a metallic substance, had lej.fteil the ringed hand and allowed it to b<> pro vkleiitialy cast np en the beach to prove the poor man's fiite. The singular fact is, however, that the hand is said not to l»e at all decomposed. Now if it has been floating about amongst the Snmncr rocks and beakers for 67 days, it is certainly extraordinary that tlif-re are no signs of decomposition and that any flesh should remain on the bones. The insurance companies, we hear, do not believe in the iniiactilously pieser vative powers of Su nner billows, and even the discovery of the severed hand has not convinced them that Howarde was really drowned in October last, or that it is their duty to pay np.