TWO CHILDREN DROWNED

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27912, 8 March 1956, Page 14

TWO CHILDREN DROWNED

FALL FROM WHARF WHILE FISHING (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 7. Two young children were drowned when they fell into the Waitemata harbour from the end of the Ponsonby wharf about 5.45 p.m. today. They were Vinod Patel, aged 5, and his sister, Laxmi Patel, aged 7, children of Mr Fakir Unka and Mrs Jumna Patel, of 126 Jervois road, Herne Bay. Hearing of the tragedy from a child who was on the wharf at the time, two 14-year-old boys nearby raced to the scene. Soon after, these lads, John West, of 16 Wallace street. Ponsonby, and Sigurd Falkenhaug. of 112 Jervois road, saw the body of Vinod Patel floating close to the wharf. Joined by Mohan Patel, aged 15, they stripped off their shirts, dived in, and brought the body to the wharf. Sigurd applied artificial respiration in vain “as best I knew” until an ambulance arrived. The second body has not been recovered. It is thought that there may have been some horseplay among children on the wharf at the time of the accident, and the police are investigating. The children drowned were fishing from the end of a 50yd wooden jetty.

14MONTHOLD BOY DROWNED (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 7. A 14-month-old boy was drowned in an 18in deep pond in the yard of his home in Auckland yesterday. He was; Peter John Carthew, of 20 Mokoia road. Birkenhead.