Fatal Accident at the Northern Wairoa.

Auckland Star, Volume IX, Issue 2604, 22 August 1878, Page 3

Fatal Accident at the Northern Wairoa.

The following extract from a letter to hand this morning", has been placed at our disposal:—" We hare had another drowning case. The Foam (a centre-board boat, which won the sailing races at last Dargaville regatta) has capsized, and her owner Louey is drowned. They have just found his body. He was coming down from the bush on Saturday morning by himself, and he knew nothing about sailing a boat. There was very little wind at the time. It happened opposite the Awakino, where the i£ .l i.t_^ia u i ceuLie-uud.ru ooaus very unsafe on the Wairoa or any rapid river. If they touch anything on the bottom, over they go, wind or no wind. Daltoh's boat is said, to have gone over against the wind. I think Louey s boat touched something, as there was little wind at the time. After the capsize, the man swam nearly *to shore, and then turned back for his coat, which was floating down the river with his pocket book in it. Samuel Dell, one of Mr Frost's men, was coming down in a punt at the time, and was going to get a tow next tack. He was speaking to him just before the accident, and saw it. all. Mr Waymouth, the boat-builder, and our policeman went up, found the boat, and raised her. There was a reef in the main-sail; j but the sheets were fasr. The body was found on the mud; close to where the accident happened. He had no relatives in New Zealand." , We learn that the poor fellow's name was Antonio Louis Souze, arid that he was a native of one of the Canary Islands. He was apparently a Spanish Mulatto'; but most people supposed Mm to be either a Maori or a Kanaka. j '