FALL DOWN WELL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 47, 25 February 1935, Page 9

FALL DOWN WELL.

PENSIONER DROWNED.

OLD GUMFIELDS IDENTITY

KITTENS IN A SACK. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WHANGAREI, .this day. An old-age pensioner, 'Mr. Stephen Courtney, aged about 86 years, who lived in the Pukenui district, near Houhora, was accidentally drowned on Saturday. Apparently he fell into a well when attempting to drown some kittens. Mr. Courtney, who lived alone in a shanty about a"mile and a half from the Pukenui post office, had been on the gumfields for about 40 years. On Saturday afternoon Mr. Courtney told a neighbour, Mr. J." Sheldon, who passed the shanty when going fishing, that he intended'to drown some kittens. Passing the old man's home on his return in the evening, Mr. Sheldon could find no sign of Mr. Courtney. Returning to the whare on Sunday morning, and finding that Mr. Courtney was still, absent, he made a search, without result,- until he remembered what the old man had, said about drowning some kittens. On examining a disused well he found the body in about two feet of water. The well was surrounded by tea-tree and scrub. When the body was recovered one hand was still grasping the sack containing the. kittens. The coroner, Mr. L. A. Mcintosh, and Dr. Rule visited Houhora yesterday, and at an iquest a. verdict of accidental drowning, was returned.