YOUTH BELIEVED DROWNED

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25735, 22 February 1949, Page 6

YOUTH BELIEVED DROWNED

(P.A.), WELLINGTON, February 21. William Ross Wells, aged 19, whose home was in Christchurch, is believed to have been drowned in high seas at Titahi Bay yesterday afternoon. With two companions. lan Park and Donald Wilson, Wells was carried by an undercurrent into a danger area. Wilson succeeded in scrambling ashore, and he returned with a life-saving reel. He managed to get Park out cf the water, but Wells was too far out.

A member of the life-saving club, Norman Bowers, unsuccessfully tried to rescue Wells, who, when last seen, was drifting rapidly. No trace of Wells, who is employed by the Post and Telegraph Department, has been reported.

SEVEN BATHERS IN DIFFICULTIES (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Feb. 21/ Seven pupils of the Opunake District High School got into difficulties simultaneously when bathing at Opunake to-day. The alarm siren failed to act, and a doctor and members of the Opunake- Surf Club had to be summoned by telephone. In the meantime, all those in difficulties were rescued by other pupils. One rescuer himself disappeared from sight when a breaker crashed over him, but was later brought ashore unconscious by a fellow pupil who had manned the belt. He recovered after medical attention. LAUNCH BURNED ON LAKE ROTORUA (P.A) ROTORUA. February 21. When the engine exploded, the 28foot cabin launch Avalon was destroyed by fire on Lake Rotorua yesterday. One passenger, together with a girl who could not swim, jumped overboard when it was obvious that the fire was beyond control, and clung to a beacon on a submerged rock for almost an hour before being rescued. The other occupants, a man and a woman, managed to reach the shore. Mr K. W. Hale, the owner, of the boat, was near the engine when the fire started, and when hi§ clothes caught fire he dived overboard. He suffered burns to his face, legs and hands, and was admitted to the Rotorua Hospital.