FURTHER DETAILS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 199, 24 August 1925, Page 6

FURTHER DETAILS.

AN "UNHEEDED WARNING. FOUR BODIES RECOVERED. A FORTUNATE TRIO. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ' PALMERSTON NORTH, this day. Further detail* of the drowning fatality iat Foxton Heads are supplied by the ! "Standard's" Foxton correspondent. Thomas Staff, a carpenter, residing at Foxton, assisted by his sons, had built a flat-bottomed boat, and he decided to I try it on the river on Saturday afternoon. Accordingly, Mr. Staff, who was about 42 years of age, accompanied by two sons, aped 16 and 17*, and two daughters, aged. 13~ and IH, left the wharf at Foxton early in the afternoon in ideal weather, to run down to the heads on the ebb ' tide. Apparently all went well till they 'were near the bar, when the strength, jof the ebb tide at the narrowed mouth of j the river, carried the boat too far, and. j she was swamped just inside the bar. All the occupants were drowned. The only witness of the tragedy wa3 a Maori woman. Mrs. Wade, who stated that while she was gathering pipis neap the heads, she observed the boat with five occupants, all apparently in high spirits : approaching the bar at a rapid rate, and taking little note of the dangers of the j bar. The two boys were rowing at the I time. She realised the danger. Thq j boat was to far away for her to call a warning. Pile watch the boat, which rose to the first wave at the bar month, and then disappeared in, the trough of the sea. The next wave lialf-fllled the boat, and the third broke right over it, leaving no trace of the . party. The whole thing was a matter of ; seconds. Horrified, Mrs. Wade rushed Jup the beach and informed the harbour ! pilot, Captain Larsen, who set out in his launch, but, owing to the heavy sea and the approach of darkness, nothing was visible, and he was obliged to , return. I Captain T-arsen says the river is only ! about four feet deep at the scene of the tragedy, but the current was too strong for anyone in a boat to withstand it. He believes that the party was unable to I see the heavy sea on the bar, owing to the sun's reflection on. the water, until too late. Charles Dawson, a fisherman, the party passing down the river earlier in the afternoon, and called a warning j about the danger of going over the bar if that -was contemplated. Mr. Staff senior, replied that he did not know anything about the bar. The boat ttae tliea travelling fast. Search for the bodies on Saturday night vras unavailing and it was continued on Sunday morninir, when the body of Mr. ■Staff senior was found, a quarter of a mile south, of the river, on the bea-ch. In the afternoon, the body of Dulcie Staff was found on the river bank, half a mile inside tht bar and near the jetty. The bodies of the two boys were found this morning. The body" of one girl is still missing.