M.P. Helps In Rescue Of Boy

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32323, 15 June 1970, Page 1

M.P. Helps In Rescue Of Boy

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 14. A member of Parliament today helped guide a rescue team through rugged country to bring out an injured youth.

The youth, John Hadfield, aged 14, of Cedar Street. Maungarakei, and his 14-year-old companion, lan Bretherton, of Ariki Street, Lower Hutt, were preparing to fish at the top of the Korokoro Stream shortly before 7 a.m.

John’s fishing lure became stuck in a branch overhanging a cliff above the stream and he climbed up to free it. He accidentally dislodged some rocks, which came down on top of him as he lost his footing and fell into the stream.

lan said tonight he helped pull his friend to the side and then went for help. He walked for about an hour through thick bush and scrub and knocked at the door of the first house he came to,

that of Mr H. L. J: May, Labour M.P. for Western i Hutt. Mr May called the police and the Lower Hutt ambulance and he and the boy guided the rescue team ithrough another bush track to the injured youth. John, suffering from a fractured pelvis, a suspected fractured leg and severe exposure, was strapped into a special stretcher. Ambulance men, police and local residents carried the stretcher for five miles, often plunging through the stream. As the stretcher party left the scene lan walked back through the bush to Mr May’s house and called the Wellington Free Ambulance emergency waggon, which arrived at Petone soon after 9.30 a.m. The boy was taken to Hutt Hospital, where his condition was reported tonight as satisfactory.