TWO DROWNED IN LAKE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21827, 6 July 1936, Page 8

TWO DROWNED IN LAKE

ANOTHER TRAGEDY IN WAIRARAPA

BOAT CAPSIZED IN STRONG WIND . (PRESS ABSOCUTIOS TEUtOBAM.) MASTERTON. July 5. The second double drowning in Wairarapa within three weeks occurred on Saturday afternoon, when tragedy overtook a fishing party of three men and a boy. The victims were:— Geoffrey William Bicknell, aged about 35, carpenter, of Featherston. Thomas Latham, elderly, farmer, of Pirmoa, The other two members of the party, who had been netting flounders from a flat-bottomed boat, were Athol Charles Bicknell, of Featherston, brother of one of the two who were drowned, and his 15-year-old son, Garth. The accident occurred about 3 p.m. in Lake Onoke, directly in front of Lake Ferry Hotel. Eyewitnesses state that the waters of the lake were slightly choppy and a fairly strong north-westerly wind was blowing. The party was having a heavy pull across the lake to the shore when one of the men appeared to miss his stroke and the boat swamped and overturned. Within five minutes of the accident F. Brough, licensee of the Lake Ferry Hotel and two other men had rowed out to the boat and found Garth Bicknell and his father hanging on to the side of the upturned boat, but there was no sign of Geoffrey Bicknell or Latham. Though they had been in the water for only a few minutes, both rescued persons were suffering severely from cold. The tragedy deepened by the presence of Mrs Geoffrey Bicknell and two of her three young children on the beach. They watched the accident with horror-stricken eyes. The waters of the lake were too rough to-day to allow dragging operations, and the bodies have not yet been recovered. As the accident occurred in the channel leading to the outlet of the lake it is feared that the bodies might have been swept out to sea. A party, in charge of Constable W. S. Brown, of Martinborough, which searched the beaches this morning, had a fortunate escape when their boat almost capsized. Latham was a well-known settler and is survived by his wife. Bicknell is survived by his wife and three young children