Two Youths Drowned While Crossing Stream

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31340, 10 April 1967, Page 1

Two Youths Drowned While Crossing Stream

Two members of the 23rd Christchurch Company of the Boys’ Brigade were drowned on Saturday morning when a party of seven boys, accompanied by an adult leader, stepped into deep water when crossing a stream of the Mingha river, and were swept downstream.

The accident occurred about 200 yards above the confluence of the Bealey river and the Mingha in the Arthur’s Pass area.

The boys were: GAVIN BRUCE CLARK, aged 15, of 14 North Avon road, Richmond, the youngest son of Mr and Mrs A. R. Clark. He was employed as a storeman by John Burns, Ltd. PHILIP RICHARD GEORGE MORRIS, aged 15, of 107 Quinns road, Shirley, the only son of Mr and Mrs R. Morris. He was in the fifth form at the Mairehau High School.

The two boys who were drowned and Alan Teague, the son of the leader, Mr L. Teague, of Christchurch, were swept out into the flooded Bealey river. Alan Teague, shocked and exhausted, managed to scramble on to an island in the Bealey river. The other two boys could not be found. Safe On Bank The other five members of the group clambered on to the bank within about 100 yards of where they had entered the river. Mr Teague gave the alarm and Arthur’s Pass National Park Board rangers, police and civilians

searched for the two missing boys. The body of Gavin Clark was recovered from the river about 300 yards up from the Bealey river railway bridge about 3 p.m. on Saturday. The search for Philip Morris was continued yesterday and his body was found at 2.20 p.m. in a groyne of the river opposite where Gavin Clark’s body was found. Medal Tests A party of senior Boys’ Brigade members, who were having their teste for the Duke of Edinburgh silver and bronze medals, travelled by rail-car from Christchurch to

the Bealey river bridge on Friday evening. They camped there for the night At 8.30 a.m. Mr Teague and his group set off to climb up the Mingha river valley. They arrived at the Mingha river about 9.30 a.m. and crossed three tributaries of the river without difficulty. They began to make the crossing of the last stream which was not very wide nor deep when they entered the water. It was raining at the time and a north-west wind had caused a fresh in the river. Members of the party were linked by hanging on to the straps of each other’s packs. They stepped into a hole and were swept downstream.

Gavin Clark had been a keen member of the Boys’ Brigade for about seven years, starting as a member of the Life Boys. He attended the Christchurch Technical College and the Hagley High School.

Philip Morris had also been a member of the Brigade for a number of years and had joined as a Life Boy.