FOUR MAORIS DROWNED

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14391, 16 June 1947, Page 3

FOUR MAORIS DROWNED

TAXI’S PLUNGE INTO HARBOUR

Week-End Tragedy At Raglan

Crash Through Rails Into

22 Feet Of Water

(P.A.) Hamilton, June 15. Four Maoris were drowned when a car in which they were travelling fell from a bridge into a stream at Raglan at 6.30 o’clock last night. The victims were: Mrs Mary Hounuku Kereopa, aged 36, of Whale Bay; Mr Manu Awa Tukiri, aged 44, of Whale Bay; Mrs Opehia Tukiri, aged 43, wife of Mr M. A. Tukiri, and Kathleen Tukiri, aged 12, daughter of Mr and Mrs Tukiri. Five Maoris were being conveyed in a taxi driven by Mr Archibald Dundas Robertson, taxi-driver, from Raglan to Whale Bay. When halfway across the Opotoro Bridge, which crosses an arm of the Raglan Harbour known as the Opotoro Stream, half a mile south of Raglan, the car skidded. It crashed through the wooden railings of the bridge and fell into 22ft of water.

Mr Robert Son could not open the door on his side of the car, but he pulled down the ydndow on the opposite side and he and Mr Jack Kereopa, aged 32, husband of Mrs Mary Kereopa, who was in the seat next the driver, were able to escape and swim ashore. Mr Robertson dived from the bridge and was able to bring Mrs Kereopa’s body ashore, where artificial respiration was tried, without success by people who' had arrived at the scene, and later by a doctor.

The other bodies were not recovered until 4.30 o’clock' this morning, after a party organised by Constable S. R. R. Gawlor had worked hard to pull the taxi into shallower water. A breakdown truck, a road grader and several launches were used to move the car.

An inquest was opened today before the district coroner, Mr W. R. Moore, and adjourned.

Mr and Mrs Tukiri are survived by a family of nine. The Tukiri and Kereopa families are the best known Maoris in the Raglan district. They had been farming under the Native Department’s land settlement scheme between Raglan and Whale Bay: