BOY DIED SOON AFTER MISHAP

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31761, 19 August 1968, Page 1

BOY DIED SOON AFTER MISHAP

The youth who accidentally shot himself in the chest while pig hunting in rugged country inland from Goose Bay, North Canterbury, on Thursday afternoon, died within an hour of the accident. His body was found by a search party about 1 p.m, yesterday.

He was | GEOFFREY KEITH MARTIN, aged 17, a fifth form pupil at Christ’s College, the son of Mr and Mrs K. C. Martin, of 113 Hackthorne Road, Cashmere.

The New Zealand cyclist, T. J. Tabak, will not go to the Olympic Games at Mexico with the Dutch team after all. Competing in an amateur criterium at Borne a week ago, Tabak crashed and broke his right arm in three places. Tabak’s former New Zealand sponsor, Mr C. W. van Heusden, of the Black Tulip Roadhouse, Motukarara, said yesterday that he had received newspaper clippings of the smash. Tabak, said Mr van Heusden. was at full pace, striving for a prime sprint in the criterium when he took a corner too wide. He hit the kerb and crashed into a pole. One newspaper heading (translated) read “Tino Tabak Does Not Go To Mexico.” It also said that the Dutch pursuit team was faced with a very difficult job without Tabak. When he was riding in the team, it had recorded 4min 38sec for the 4000 metres ride. In a subsequent ride, with Tabak watching and his arm in a sling, the team’s best was only 4min 412 sec.

His companion, Paul Arlov, aged 16, of 10 Takahe Drive, put the injured youth in a sleeping bag and made him as comfortable as possible before setting out for Goose Bay about 10 miles south of Kaikoura. He was overtaken by darkness and got lost in the bush. About midday on Friday he was found by hunters about two miles from the farm of Mr W. M. Dowle at Goose Bay. The Kaikoura police were informed of the accident and about a dozen men under Constable M. F. Direen made a search. As Paul Arlov was not able to pinpoint the place where be left his friend, the injured youth was not found. At dawn on Saturday 24 members of the Search and Rescue Organisation from Christchurch, seven policemen and the field control unit were joined by about a dozen volunteers from Kaikoura and adjacent areas to make a thorough search. The base camp was set up three miles into the bush from Mr Dowle’s farm. They located the camp where the youths had lunch on Thursday. More than 100 persons were engaged yesterday in the search which was concentrated on a half-mile square

area of steep country covered by dense bush. The contact search procedure was carried out over this area which meant that the men travelled in a line over the country and were all within view of one another.

Around the perimeter of this area other search parties were working. It was one of these parties, under Constable H. C. Hollander, of Cheviot, which found the body. The dead youth had been struck in the chest with a hollow-nosed .303 bullet which penetrated the body and caused severe injuries. The body was carried out on a stretcher and was brought to Christchurch in an Army ambulance. The search controller In Christchurch was Inspector G. R. Knight, and Messrs J. Murphy and W. Croll, of Christchurch, and L. Battersby, of Kaikoura, headed the search control team.

Chief Superintendent G. S Austing thanked all those who assisted in the search. They had done a wonderful job under difficult conditions, he said. Shot Described “We were sitting one behind the other on a couple of rocks. I heard a muffled bang and felt wind whistle past my cheek. Geoffrey turned around and in a casual voice said, 'Paul, I’ve been shot.’

“He stood up, his pack fell off, and he stumbled and ran down the hill. I could see he had been hit badly,” Paul Arlov said last evening. "The bleeding soon stopped and I remembered that Geoffrey had some Army field dressings in his pack,” said Paul Arlov. He scrambled down the slope for about 100 ft where the pack had rolled. Quickly he flung out the contents of the pack until he found the dressings. Using a knife he cpt off Geoffrey's shirt and

applied the dressings to the wounds.

“I got a sleeping bag and put Geoffrey in it. He did not want to lie back so I propped him up in a sitting position with his head bent forward. I told him that I was going for help and I would not be long. He called out: ‘Please don’t leave me, I’ll die.’ I took off at a run and when about 50 yards away I heard Geoffrey singing in a rambling fashion,” Paul Arlov said.

The youth lost his bearings and headed upstream instead of down. After following the stream for about a mile he climbed up a ridge. He was only lightly dressed and crossed four streams, some of which he had to swim. Miserable Night He continued until dark when he collapsed on top of a ridge. He was soaked and numb with the cold and spent a miserable, sleepless night. At dawn he began walking again but realised he had lost all sense of direction and wandered aimlessly. Eventually he saw a road and a hut and he was seen by two pig hunters who took him to the hut, gave him some sweets and drove him to Mr Dowle’s farm.

The two boys left Christchurch by rail-car at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. They reached Mr Dowle’s farm about 9 a.m. on Thursday. Mr Dowle was not home because he was not expecting them until Friday morning. Mrs Dowle showed them the best area for pig shooting on a map About noon they reached a hut and then travelled along a gorge. They had lunch on the riverbed and then climbed a steep cliff face and walked for about three hours before they came to the spot where the accident occurred.

“We were not very fit and were thirsty but could not find any water. Geoffrey must have banged the butt of his rifle on the ground in front of him in annoyance and the gun went off,” Paul Arlov said.