DESPERATE EFFORTS TO SAVE MAN

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 1

DESPERATE EFFORTS TO SAVE MAN

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 6.

A Navy diver today found the body of a young man who drowned off Puatiti Point, near Kawakawa Bay, yesterday afternoon. The dead man was

FREDERICK IVAN PAUL STEPHENS, aged 23, a cabinetmaker, married with one child, of Hannah Road, Otara.

Mr Stephens’s body was found in 20 feet of water near where he disappeared while diving for mussels. Mr L. J. Wilkinson, aged 23, a fitter, of Wynyard Road, Mt Eden, tried in vain to save Mr Stephens after his feet became caught up in weed.

Mr Wilkinson told police later that he heard his friend whose chin was just above the water, calling for help. Mr Wilkinson managed to free his friend’s feet but then Mr Stephens’s trousers became caught up round his : ankles. Mr Wilkinson made unsucl cessful attempts to free the trousers. While supporting Mr

Stephens, Mr Wilkinson tried to catch the attention of some fishermen some distance away. After losing contact with and being unable to find him again, Mr Wilkinson swam to shore and told a group of young Maoris what had happened. They immediately began diving for Mr Stephens. A diver searched until dusk yesterday for the missing man.

A team of Navy divers began searching for Mr Stephens today and recovered his body about 1.15 p.m. Father And Son A father and son were drowned in the Mokau river just after 4 p.m. today when the small canoe they were in capsized.

The body of the boy, believed to be aged about 7, was recovered about half, an hour later, but police and local residents have not yet recovered the body of his father. The names of the two persons have not been released. The two were whitebaiting in the river and it is thought they were paddling across the river about one mile from the mouth when the accident occurred.