ACCIDENTS & DEATHS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 85, 20 January 1938, Page 6

ACCIDENTS & DEATHS.

DROWNED IN CAPSIZED DINGHY

TWO OTHERS RESCUED

(Per Presa ABJociatloH.)

AUCKLAND, January 19

* One man was drowned and two others had a narrow escape from a similar fate when a dinghy in which they were fishing capsized about 200 yards off the sandspit at D'evonport this afternoon. The victim was Mr George Houseman, a. labourer, of Owens Road, Devonport, an elderly widower.

The plight of Mr Houseman and his two companions, Mr James S. Miller and James Patterson, was first seen by two young men, Messrs Allan Harris and J. McKenzie, of Devonport, who were also fishing some distance away in a speed-boat. Quickly arriving at the scene of the accident, they found Messrs Miller and Patterson clinging to the dinghy, supporting with difficult}’- Mr Houseman, who was unconscious.

The three men were taken aboard the speed-boat, after which the dinghy overturned and sank almost immediately. Efforts at resuscitation were made on Mr Houseman at the Devonport beach, but without success.

BABY DROWNED IN WATER TROUGH. WANGANUI, January 19. Helen Doreen Gray, the infant daughter of Mr and Mrs A. Gray, of Longaere, was drowned to-day •in a water trough near the homestead. The discovery was made by her mother, who found the body after it had been in the water only a few minutes.

BOY DROWNED IN RIVER.

NELSON, January 19. The body of Douglas Alan Thomas, aged 12 years, whose parents reside at Motucka, was reeoveerd from a deep pool in the Matiri River, near Murchison, to-day. Thomas, who was spending a holiday at Matin', on Sunday afternoon went for a swim in the river, got into difficulties, and disappeared, in spite of his companion’s efforts to slave him..