FARMER'S FATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17, 21 January 1933, Page 6

FARMER'S FATE.

SWEPT OFF ROCKS.

BODY STILL MISSING.

THIRD CASE IN FORTNIGHT.

A farmer of Waimauku, Mr. Patrick Norton, aged 28, was drowned off Parioa Rock, near Muriwai Beach, West Coast, yesterday afternoon. He was swept from the rock from which he was fishing and disappeared in the surf. This is the third case of drowning on the West Coast within a fortnight. The body had not been recovered by noon to-day.

Mr. Norton, who was single and farmed as a sharemilker at Waikuku Valley, went fishing off the rock at 9.30 a.m. with Mr. Maurice Daniels, of Newton, and Mr. T. P. Murray, of Waimauku. Just after mid-day they had decided to r2turn to the beach. As they were proceeding along the rocks, a huge breaker swept the rock 011 which they were standing and flung them into the surf.

Mr. Daniels and Mr. Murray managed to light their way back to the rocks again, where their wives, who had witnessed the accident, wore waiting. Mr. Norton failed to make the rocks and disappeared. The party waited for some time hoping to see some glimpse of their companion. Constable Rushton, of Henderson, and Constable Hunt, of Helensville, were sent for, and, assisted by a search party, they scoured the various bays along the coast for the missing man, but without avail.