SAD BOATING DISASTER.

Eighteen Natives Drowned.

Three Bodied Recovered.

This morning Inspector O'Brien received information from the police at Tadranga of a sad boa.ting disaster, by which eighteen natives were drowned. The telegram received by the inspector is as follows :—" Constable O'Reilly reports that sixteen Maori children and two adults were drowned last Sunday whilst crossing the Motu river, twentyfive miles from Opotiki, through a canoe upsetting. Three bodies have been recovered."

[per press association.! Auckland; This day. The Star's Opotiki correspondent wires: —"Sixteenschoolchildren and two adults were drowned in the Motu river on Sunday. They left Maraenui for the Omaio school in charge of an elderly woman and a man named Pani. It is surmised that they were crossing the river in a canoe, which was upset by a heavy sea. Nothing was known of the casualty until Monday, when the children not arriving, a search party found some of the bodies on the beach." Several families have lost two children each. All belonged to Whaoanapanui. The names are not yet available."