Criticism. – Says a leading article in the Hastings News of Jan. 7th., 1853 – “We are not desirous of casting censure at a public officer engaged in duties so arduous as those which have continuously pressed on the late surveyor, but we regret that he should have come to a standstill just at this crisis. The drainage now appears to be postponed sine die, though, doubtless, the Council will do their best to hurry it on. Whoever is to be the successor of Mr. Putland, we trust that a thoroughly competent man will be engaged, and that no further delays and disappointments will be visited on the already heavily rated borough. The importance of the duties devolving on the Council in pursuance of the Public Health Act is daily becoming more apparent – a fact, which we trust, will be duly remembered on every first of November. At least there should be no ‘dummies’ at the Board, and we hope that there are no such monstrocities in the region of the Town Hall. We perceive that a legal opinion as to the payment of the borough map is to be laid before the Council to day (See Council meeting, page 10.) We suppose this opinion comes through the hands of the St. Leonards Commissioners. On this point we cannot but think that St. Leonards has been treated discourteously, if not unjustly.”
Accidents and Fatalities
Thomas Page, 49 years of age (uncle to the wife of Henry Osborne (1806-), a printer) drowned himself on the 5th or 6th of March in the “Marl Pit” or Eft Ponds (not now existent). His mind had been deranged in consequence of a law-suit, some time before, he had trespassed on a passage by opening a window and a door, and was sued by a man named Benge, and although he had offered £50 as compensation (which counsel’s opinion stated was too liberal), action was taken against him, and as he had never been in a law-court before, it so entirely depressed him that suicide was the result. In his pocket were found money, keys, promisory notes &c.
William Benge(probably a son of the Mr. Benge who sued Thos. Page, as above described) was very severely scalded on the 4th of April, at Breeds’s Brewery.
Accidental Drowning. – William Plane, a fine man of 32 years, was on a fishing voyage at Plymouth in the “William” lugger, and while there, as an act of kindness to another man, he took his place in a different boat to his own. On the 29th of March, while cleaning some fish on the side of the boat, he was knocked over by the swinging of a sail, and unfortunately drowned. He left a wife and one child. His father was drowned 28 years before.
Fatal Accident. On the 15th of April, Henry Barden, living at Hastings, with a wife and two children, while standing on the step of a carriage in a train from London to Hastings, struck his head against a railway arch, and was immediately killed.
A Curious Accident. On the 31st of May, as a workman was sitting on a putlog at a great height on one of the Robertson terrace houses then building, a plumb weight fell -
