BODY FOUND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 13

BODY FOUND.

WAIUKU FARMER. DISCOVERY AT MURIWAI. MAIORO BEACH TRAGEDY. The body found on Muriwai Beach early yesterday morning has been identified as that of a farmer, Francis Joseph Priest, a married man, aged 40, who lived with his wife and family at Otaua, Waiuku, and who -was drowned while bathing at Maioro Beach, six miles north of the Waikato Heads, jn the afternoon of January 29. At the inquest held this morning-, the coroner, Mr. F. K, Hunt, again commented on the danger of bathing on ocean beaches when the tide was on the ebb. Charles Francis Molloy, freezing worker, identified the body as that of I Francis Joseph Priest, a brother-in-law of witness. On January 29, at 2.30 p.m., said witness, he was with Mr. Priest and others at Maioro Beach, near the Waikato Heads. Mr. Priest went into the sea for a swim dressed only in his trousers. He had not been in the water long before he got into difficulties. The undertow took him out. Witness rode out on a horse into the surf to try and save him, but he was unsuccessful. "Nothing could be done to help him," said Mr. Molloy. "There was no boat and none of us present were sufficiently good swimmers to reach him. I saw him disappear. After reporting the matter to the police we searched for the body without success." A verdict of accidental death by drowning was returned by the coroner. "It is useless trying to instil into the public the great danger of bathing in the outgoing tide on ocean beaches," said Mr. Hunt. Fire which broKe out in premises owned by George Fraser and Sons, Ltd., engineers and • founder?, in Stanley Street, last evening, caused slight damage to the walls and roof of the building. A passing taxi driver who eaw the smoke issuing from the roof gave the alarm, and two machines were dispatched from the Central Fire Station and one from Parnell. The firemen had no difficulty in extinguishing 4he flamee, and the machinery was not damaged.