CITY'S RESPECT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 177, 29 July 1938, Page 9

CITY'S RESPECT.

DROWNING VICTIMS. MOTHER AND CHILDREN. SERVICE IN ST. MATTHEW'S. While four white coffins, with floral coverings, passed, the busy traffic of Hobson Street was halted as a mark of respect to the victims of the most tragic drowning accident Auckland has seen in a decade. From St. Matthew's Church, in the Sieart of the city, the bodies, of Mrs. Vera Lawson and her three young children, Joan, Gladys and Peter, were carried by two hearses to their last resting place at Waikumete.

Many citizens attended at St. Matthew's to hear the beautiful words of the Anglican burial service read over the four coffins by the Rev. R. T. Honteith. The caskets, covered by flowers, lay in the chancel. Following the singing of the hymn "Abide With Me," Mr. Monteith gave a scriptural reading, commencing: "And they brought the young children to Him." and ending with a quotation of tiic wen-known text:

"Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

The coffins were carried from the church on the shoulders of workmates and relatives of the bereaved father. Mr. Harold James Lawson, driver of the car in which his family was trapped when it plunged over the eastern reclamation on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of heads were bared in sympathy as. the procession moved away from the church on its way to Waikumete, where the last rites "were carried out.