Children Trapped In Mud

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 1

Children Trapped In Mud

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 6. A child’s cry of “Mummy” warned a young woman that three children were trapped in deep mud at Newlands, a Wellington suburb, today.

The woman, Mrs J. O. Johnson, sank almost to her waist as she tried to drag the children clear.

One boy managed to free himself but the other two were sucked further into the oozing mud as they struggled to escape.

Residents who helped rescue the children had to use planks to build a platform across the bog. Mrs Johnson was walking the footpath in Newlands road near her home about 10.20 a.m. when she heard cries coming from a subdivision site on the side of a hill.

"I heard the cry ’Mummy,’ and at first I thought they were just playing, but when I heard it a second time 1 realised something was wrong. I ran back to my house to get my gumboots. “When I reached the children they were stuck in the mud almost to their

waists, so I climbed down and tried to free them. “One of them, Martin Fitchett, aged three, escaped, but his brother Paul, four, and Carolyn Carr, four, couldn’t free themselves. “As I got down to them I found myself sinking. Soon I was stuck,” Mrs Johnson said. Other neighbours and Carolyn’s mother, Mrs R. Carr, of Ruskin street, arrived and tried to drag the children out with a shovel, but were unsuccessful.

Mr R. F. Huckling, of Newlands road, brought planks. A platform was built across the mud and the rescuers were able to drag the children out