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Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18307, 14 February 1925, Page 15

•Seven hours' solitary confinement at the bottom of a dry well, some 25 feet deep, was the unenviable experience the other, day of Wallace Smeaton, aged 16, youngest son of Mrs E. Smeaton, of the Waihi Plains. The well was in the course of being sunk. Young Smeaton went down a rope from • the surface to the bottom of the well with the intention of getting a spade. The rope was wet and slippery, and, try how he could, his most strenuous and repeated efforts only resulted in his getting half-way up the shaft. He then gave up any further attempts, and .'settled down to attract attention by vocal effort. The well was some-distance from the homestead, and there was no response. Young Smeaton went down the well at about 10 o'clock in,the morning, and it was not until five o'clock in the late afternoon that- his brother - set out on horseback to search for him. When in the vicinity of the well he heard his brother's voice calling for. help, and quickly located him. The lad. was; then hauled up, and, though somewhat exhausted, was little the worse for his lonely vigil at\the ; bottom of the well.