FALL OVER A CLIFF.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10785, 12 October 1900, Page 2

FALL OVER A CLIFF.

SENSATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF TWO LYTTELTON BOYS.

A NIGHT SPENT IN THE RAIN

Considerable excitement was caused in Lyttelton on Wednesday night and early yesterday morning, when it became.known that two boys, named Frederick Dyer, aged nine, and Frank Foster, aged six, who had left their homes about noon on. Wednesday, had not returned.

A large search party was organised, and remained out tilfthe early hours of the morning without any success. The search was resumed later, and great relief was experienced about nine o'clock when it was ascertained that the missing children had been found. Unfortunately, however, they had experienced a terrible night. In the darkness of Wednesday night before the moon rose they had fallen over a cliff near the Sumner baths, the younger breaking a leg, and the elder becoming unconscious. In this condition they had lam exposed to a tropical rain, which had drenched them to the skin. They were found at six o'clock this morning by the children of Mrs McLeod, who lost no time in raising an alarm. Sergeant Rutleage left Lyttelton at once for the scene of the accident. Mr Radcliffe, the Mayor of Lyttelton, took a prominent part in arranging for the comfort of the little fellows, who were taken charge of by Mrs McLeod. He also sent to Lyttelton for Dr. Pairman, who went out shortly after ten o'clock.

The boys were found near the side of the road, having evidently fallen from a track leading over the hills. The fall would be about from 25ft to 40ft, and was broken somewhat by projecting banks of clay and rock. The boys had walked over from Sumner earlier in the day, and about six in the afternoon they started -to return. On the way back Foster sat down on the side of the track along the cliff and by some means slipped over the side, and during the night remained where he fell, asleep. Foster did not know how Dyer fell, but it must have been in somewhat the same manner, for the boys were within half a chain of each other when found. When the news reached Lyttelton that the boys had been found, Dr. Pairman, Sergeant Rutledge, and others, came over and took them back to Lyttelton on ambulance stretchers. • Dr. Pairman says that Dyer had received severe concussion of the brain, but no bones had been broken, and the skull is not injured as far as can be ascertained at present. Foster lias a fractured thigh, but considering all things, he appears to be doing very well indeed. From the height of the fall, it is wonderful that the boys were not killed outright.

When found, the boys were drenched' with rain, and in a pitiable plight. Mrs McLepd gave them a change of clothes and warm drinks, and did all she could to nullify the effects of the night's exposure. Messrs Hollis and Brown took their men off work and despatched them to Sumner to assist in bearing the stretchers. Sergeant Rutledge and Constables Hastie and Connell were unremitting in their efforts to find the boys.

Late yesterday evening Dyer was still unconscious.