TWO MEN THOUGHT TO BE DROWNED

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30594, 10 November 1964, Page 1

TWO MEN THOUGHT TO BE DROWNED

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, November 9. A party of searchers dragging the lower reaches of the Tokomairiro river, today failed to find the bodies of two Milton men believed to have drowned while on a fishing trip on Sunday.

The men were: ARCHIBALD McINTOSH, aged 52, and DOUGLAS ALAN WEIR, aged 42.

They were left at Toko mouth about 10 a.m. on Sunday by a taxi from Milton. They were last seen about an hour later in a boat some distance up the river.

When the pair failed to return on Sunday night, the Milton police were advised. Constable T. McNally organised a search party, which started to look along the banks of the river at about 7 a.m. today. A flat-bottomed dinghy, with an outboard motor attached, was found half

swamped on the south bank of the river, but a petrol tin and other objects from the dinghy were on the sand a few yards away. Later, two peaked caps, the men were known to have been wearing, were found on the north bank, more than 100 yards diagonally across the river from the dinghy and some distance apart. Constable McNally and his party dragged the river in the vicinity with a weighted

flounder net, all day until about 6 p.m., but found nothing further. He said tonight the search party was working in the “dark" because they had no idea just where the men eould have been tipped out of the boat, which might have drifted a long distance, with the wind or tide, to its final position. The depth of the main channel in the area varies from about 6ft to some holes of more than 12ft. Tomorrow another attempt will be made to find the bodies, with grappling hooks which were being made tonight. If this is unsuccessful, the party may use underwater lamps and a glass-bottomed box to continue the search tomorrow night.