Anakiwa Fatality

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30802, 14 July 1965, Page 3

Anakiwa Fatality

(N.Z Press Association)

BLENHEIM, July 13. A tow-rope formed part of a rope which broke when being used by Outward Bound trainees to cross a river on March 14, the Coroner (Mr I. J. Horton) was told at the inquest in Havelock yesterday into the death of William Henry De Denne. of Eskdale, Hawke’s Bay, an Outward Bound trainee. The Coroner found the youth was drowned in the Pelorus river after being injured in a fall over a rocky face on the river bank. The rope which broke was the school’s tow-rope, the warden, Hamish Thomas, told the Coroner.

Inquiries had failed to reveal when the tow-rope was tied in or who tied it, he said.

He told Mr P. C. Mac Nab, who represented the youth’s parents, that the river crossing ropes were inspected in January and February and were in good condition. There was sufficient length without the addition of the tow-rope. De Denne was holding on

to a rope 50 feet above the river on a rocky face. The three inch and a half manila rope was being tightened by four or five persons prior to De Denne returning on it when it broke and De Denne was pitched off the bluff. He hit the rocks about 10ft above water level and sank in 30ft of water.